A Grammar of the Multitude: For an Analysis of Contemporary Forms of Life

Abstract

Italian political thinker Paolo Virno argues that category of is a far better tool to analyze contemporary issues than Hobbesian concept of Globalization is forcing us to rethink some of categories-such as the people-that traditionally have been associated with now eroding state. Italian political thinker Paolo Virno argues that category of elaborated by Spinoza and for most part left fallow since seventeenth century, is a far better tool to analyze contemporary issues than Hobbesian concept of people, favored by classical political philosophy. Hobbes, who detested notion of multitude, defined it as shunning political unity, resisting authority, and never entering into lasting agreements. When they rebel against state, Hobbes wrote, the citizens are multitude against people. But multitude isn't just a negative notion, it is a rich concept that allows us to examine anew plural experiences and forms of nonrepresentative democracy. Drawing from philosophy of language, political economics, and ethics, Virno shows that being foreign, not-feeling-at-home-anywhere, is a condition that forces multitude to place its trust in intellect. In conclusion, Virno suggests that metamorphosis of social systems in West during last twenty years is leading to a paradoxical Communism of Capital.

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