Spinoza’s Conatus in Judith Butler: the Journey to “Social Ontology”

ジュディス　バトラー　ニオケル　スピノザ　ノ　ユクエ　ジョウ　シャカイ　ソンザイロン　ヘノ　ミチ

フジタカ, カズキ

Fujitaka, Kazuki

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ シャカイガク ニンゲンガク ジンルイガク ケンキュウシツ

Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

スピノザ

コナトゥス

ヘーゲル

社会存在論

Butler

Spinoza

conatus

Hegel

social ontology

It is not well known that Judith Butler is an avid reader of Spinoza. However, Spinoza is a very important philosopher for her. Indeed, she said in Undoing Gender (2004) “the Spinozan conatus remains at the core of my own work (p.198).” This paper tries to elucidate the meaning of this sentence. Butler rst encountered Spinoza’s Ethics during her adolescence. Afterwards, she indirectly met Spinoza again through Hegel during her doctoral studies at Yale University. This second encounter led to the production of her dissertation, Subjects of Desire (1987). Finally, by this journey from Spinoza to Hegel, she could establish “social ontology.” I will make these movements clear by paying attention to the Spinozan conatus in Butler’s works and we can understand what is meant by conatus in Butler’s thought.