"The other conatus-Spinoza's synthetic theory of natural right"

Dr Stephen Connelly

Although ius (right) has always supported a multitude of meanings, we might broadly characterise the mainstream C17th theory of right as follows:

a) a right is the fruit of a command;

b) a command is given by a sovereign to a subject;

c) God is the sovereign of the world;

d) The commands of God are rights and, by virtue of the supreme authority of the source, they are marked as natural rights, commanded at the beginning of the world and superior to every other right.

As a corollary of his negative critique of the anthropomorphic God, Spinoza strips natural right of any legitimation through command. Yet he persists in deploying natural right as a keystone of his political philosophy now under a rigorous definition:

(A) Natural right =

a. finite and/or infinite power

b. extended along a line

equals

(B) the transition (if any) of a certain proportion of:

a. motion to

b. rest

[i.e. the power [potentia] of operating]

of some machine defined by its willing of its:

a. common nature, and

b. particular nature,

[i.e. the power [potestas] of existing]

to the extent that this produces some actual, quantitative effect.

The core of this definition is this: that we produce our natural right, it is the product of our labour—it is nothing other than work.

As can be seen from the definition, a component of natural right is the power of existing. This is known as the conatus doctrine that each thing endeavours to persevere in its being (unaquaeque res, quantum in se est, in suo esse perseverare conatur); a doctrine developed from Hobbes’ theory that the body endeavours to survive (resist) and the perception of this willing is called conatus. One of the chief results of our research (published as Spinoza, right and absolute freedom) has been to establish that Spinoza’s definition requires that there be two aspects to the conatus: (a) the well-established endeavour to persevere in being and (b) a previously overlooked endeavour to persevere in becoming.

In the seminar I will discuss this other conatus, its specific role in consciousness, how it radically enhances Spinoza’s natural right theory, acts as a forerunner of the work of Hegel and Marx, and can still be relevant to rights theorists today.