Dignity, Freedom, Indignation: Partiality and Political Realism in Machiavelli and Spinoza

Abstract

This article examines the concept of indignation in Machiavelli and Spinoza. The article demonstrates how indignation operates in both thinkers as a constitutive element of collective existence and power dynamics. This shared understanding connects to their broader theories of political realism and social conflict, revealing indignation as the name for that zone of tension where abstract definitions of affects encounter their concrete, transformative reality in the life of the multitudes.