Alexandre

Matheron, Individual and Community in Spinoza, nouvelle dition (Paris: Minuit, 1987): Table of Contents

Part 1: From substance to human individuality: conatus and natural right



Chapter 1:
From substance to individuality in general
Chapter 2:
Separation: elementary individuality and competitive universe
Chapter 3:
External unification: complex individuality and organized universe
Chapter 4:
Toward internal unification: conscious individuality and internalized universe

Part 2: Separation: alienated individuality and state of nature



Chapter 5:
Foundations and deployment of passional life

I.
Foundations of passional life (group A1)

The facts of the problem
Genesis of social alienation: desire, joy and sadness, love and hatred
Genesis of ideological alienation: belief in rectores naturae

II.
Deployment of individual passional life (group A2)

Derivation by transfer (1): the six laws of association: God and money; association by fortuitous contiguity and
omnipotence of conditioning; association by resemblance and genesis of traditional metaphysics
Derivation by transfer (2): the cycle of hope and fear; genesis and manifestations of superstition
Derivation by identification

III.
Foundations of interhuman passional life (group B1)

Direct interhuman relations: affective imitation and emulation; pity and charity; ambition and glory as foundation of
sociability; from ambition of glory to ambition of domination; envy and financial property
The human-God relation
Interhuman relations mediated by the anthropological deity: charity and fanaticism
Conclusion: interhuman love and hatred; sociablity and unsociability

IV.
Deployment of interhuman passional life (group B2)

Derivation by exigency and reciprocity: jealousy and the contradictions of allegiance
Derivation by reciprocity of exigencies: war and commerce
Derivations of group A2
Derivations of groups A1, A2, B1, B2: passional self-regulation

V.
Impact of admiration on passional life (groups A2, B2 , A1, and B1)

Conclusion: state of nature and medieval world

Chapter 6:

The relative powerlessness of reason

True knowledge of good and evil
Reason and passions (groups C, D, E, F, and G)
The problem

Foundations of reasonable life

Chapter 7:

I.

Foundations of individual reasonable life (group A1)

Biological egoism
Rational utilitarianism
Intellectualism

II.
Foundations of interhuman reasonable life (group B1)

Biological ego-altruism
Rational utilitarianism
Intellectualism

Conclusion: Necessity of political mediation

Part 3: External unification: political society and directed alienation



Chapter 8:
From the state of nature to political society
Details on natural right
Details on the state of nature
The social contract
Structural of the state in general

Chapter 9:
Separation: alienated political society and torn individuality

I.
History, or the passions of the social body

Primitive democracy
Ascendant aristocracy
Declining aristocracy
Monarchy
Variants

II.
Powerlessness of the collectivity

III.

Chapter 10:

Chapter 11:

Foundations of collective equilibrium

Principles
Political regimes and passions
The political problematic

Purely external unification: theocratic impasse and well-organized barbarism

Toward internal unification: Liberal state and civilized individuality
I.
Realization of collective equilibrium: liberal monarchy
II.
Power of the collectivity: centralized aristocracy
III.
From federal aristocracy to democracy: toward the perfect state
Conclusion: Liberal state and reason

Part 4: Internal unification: liberated individuality and community of sages



Chapter 12:
Deployment of reasonable life

I.
Deployment of individual reasonable life (group A2)
II.
Deployment of interhuman reasonable life (group B2)

Chapter 13:
Power of reason

Reduction of passions (group C)
First stage (groups F, D, and E)
Second stage (group G)

Chapter 14:
Foundations and deployment of eternal life

I.
Foundation of individual eternal life (group A1)
II.
Foundation of interhuman eternal life (group B1)
III.
Deployment of individual eternal life (group A2)
IV.
Deployment of interhuman eternal life (group B2)
Conclusion