Abstract
This episode is part one [Overview, 1677-2022] of seven of the lecture series [HTA 8] on affect theory grounded in Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics [1677], excerpt from Part III, and developed through the writings, seminars, and interviews of Walter Benjamin [1940], Gilles Deleuze [1981], Brian Massumi [2015], Justin Hill [2019], and Ed Casey [2022].
Primary Source
Spinoza, Baruch. “Ethics.” In Philosophy of Benedict De Spinoza, translated by R.H.M. Elwes, New Ed., 127–35. New York: Tudor Publishing, Co., 1936.
Spinoza, Baruch. “Introduction [by Frank Sewall, M.A.].” In Philosophy of Benedict De Spinoza, translated by R.H.M. Elwes, New Ed., v-xii. New York: Tudor Publishing, Co., 1936.
Massumi, Brian. Politics of Affect. Cambridge, UK / Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2015.
Massumi, Brian. “Affect, Fields of Immi(a)Nence, and Differential Attunement in Massumi’s Politics of Affect [by Justin A. Hill].” In Politics of Affect, Supplementary Material. Cambridge, UK / Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2015.
Guiding Questions
Baruch Spinoza [1677]
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How does affect refer to emotion, gesture, mood, feeling, impact, cause, effect, capacity, potential, power, and knowledge all at once?
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How does affect get at self-other all at once in the simultaneity of (1)affecting-(2)being-affected, i.e., (1)being-affected-(2)affecting?
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How does affect offer conceptual constructions for a non-linear and zonal metaphysics, i.e., how does affect allow us to think about environments and systems of causation more fluidly and flexibly as a field rather than as causal ‘arrow’ or throughline? Use an example.
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How does individual and environmental historicity impact affect and freedom?
Walter Benjamin [1940]
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What is weak messianism? How does it differ from strong messianism?
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How can the dead speak again (through re-interpretation)?
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What do we owe to the dead and the suffered?
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How do history and interpretation impact affect? How does affect impact history and interpretation?
Gilles Deleuze [1981]
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What are Deleuze’s two types of power? (external power which delimits our energies and opportunities [sometimes away from danger]; and internal capacity which enables/empowers us)
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To which two general emotions do these two types of power correlate in direct experience, according to Spinoza? (joy and sadness; wild winds and depressions)
Brian Massumi [2015]
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How does Massumi bring Spinozan affect into process-relational thought?
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What real-world impacts does affect theory have? What crises does affect theory (e.g., Spinoza, Benjamin, Deleuze, Massumi, Whitman) resolve or inform?
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How can understanding historicized zonal process affect aid global well-being?
Justin A. Hill [2019]
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Why does Benjamin argue passive absorption is more effective than active contemplation, which Adorno nevertheless defends?
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How does Spinozan affect theory defend Benjamin’s position from Adorno’s critique?
Edward S. Casey [2022]
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Which aspects of affect theory are still unclear?
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How do periphanous models of emotion, of thinking, of consciousness, and of transpersonal interbeing flesh out Spinozism?
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How do edges and peri-phenomenology offer paths forward for thinking affect anew? How do they justify our perceptions and convictions?