Expressionism Univocity, and Sense: Rethinking Deleuze's Spinoza
Keywords:
Spinozism, Substance, Expressionism, Univocity, SenseAbstract
This paper rethinks Deleuze’s engagement with Spinoza in a new light. While it is true that what made Deleuze’s Spinoza speculatively different is his inverse presentation of the latter’s substance-oriented metaphysics, broadly conceived, the central argument of his unfaithful reading rests on two concepts entirely foreign to Spinoza: expressionism and univocity. The present essay then seeks to intervene by bringing forth a third concept hidden in Deleuze’s reading: the ontology of sense. My claim here is that it is on this ontology that we get to reveal more of Deleuze’s distinct Spinozism. Through sense, Deleuze implicitly presents new meaning to the classical Spinozist theorem “God (or Nature)” – one that turns the unfaithful reading into a higher form of fidelity to Spinoza’s philosophy.
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