spinoza and deleuze

Eugene Holland wrote:

> Re Greg Polly's discussion of desire coming "before" interest: Spinoza says
> somewhere that "one does not desire something because one considers it good;
> one considers it good because one desires it" (or something roughly like
> that), and this (it seems to me) is where Deleuze gets the idea that desire
> is (logically? ontologically? analytically?) prior to interest (and to
> rationalist, pre-Althusserian notions of ideology).

Here is the full quotation from Spinoza (from Samuel Shirley's translation,
Hackett, 1992):

"It is clear from the above considerations that we do not endeavor,
will seek after or desire because we judge a thing to be good. On the
ocntrary, we judge a thing to be good because we endeavor, will, seek after
and desire it." (Pt. III, Prop. 9, schol.)

One might also note that this sort of thinking can be found in abundance in
Nietzsche who is, along with Spinoza, one of the figures in the history of
philosophy that Deleuze seems to hold in highest regard. However, I am not
quite sure that the distinction is between "desire" and "interest".
Spinoza's distinction is between "desire" and "goodness" or "value". It
seems to me that "desire" and "interest" are, if not identical, at least
clearly and closely related. To desire something is to be interested in its
existence (this is Kant's notion of interest as developed in the Critique of
Judgment and, to a lesser degree, the Anthropology). Spinoza's point is
more interesting, for it inverts the traditional relation between value and
desire and makes the former dpendent on the latter.

BTW, I cannot quite put my finger on _where_ it is that Deleuze develops the
point in question. Obviously, if what is at issue is _his_ distinction,
then we need to look at _his_ text.

Jonathan


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Jonathan Maskit
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