MARX AND SPINOZA:

A (IM)POSSIBLE DIALOGUE?

Abstract

This essay, using the Spinozan ontology (expressed in its' Ethics', as well as in other works, such as the 'Theological-political Treaty', ' Political Treaty' and in its' Epistles' to mention those relevant to the purposes proposed here, aims to reflect on the – non-systematic - reading and appropriation that Marx made of Spinoza, asking, as a research problem whether, having Spinoza been doubly perse-cuted - for the rabbinate and Calvinism that occupies the Dutch State, ending an Enlightenment period of tolerance of thought - with which of these Spinoza Marx identified himself: with the ex-communicated Jew or with the political philosopher trying to survive an unenlightened state? In other terms, it is a question of thinking if the use of Spinoza was only a way of Marx, through the reading of the ‘Theological-political Treaty’, of some of the letters exchanged with his peers, as well as with the categories of his 'Ethics', to reflect on the political and social misery of the reality in which they lived. Our hypothesis leans on the recognition of the relevance of this last question, which is the reformulation of a single and the same question, posed in different ways. The fact is that Spinoza is recurrent both in Marx and in his partner of dialogue and permanent formulation, Engels. Thus and for this reason, the present investigation reflects as a fundamental question what, on the one hand, the Spinozana philosophy had to say to the founders of this field of thought and, on the other hand, in counterfeiting, what the tradition founded by the two partners intellectuals absorbed from the reflections put on by the lens polisher. The method, as defined above, a purely bibliographic research.