Talk:Multitude

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Spinoza's use of the term goes back at least to Hobbes (“Citizens, when rebelling against the State, are the multitude against the people” Hobbes, 1642, XII, 8), so calling it 'Spinoza's term' is somewhat misleading.

It goes further back: Hardt & Negri cite William of Ockham as saying Ecclesia est multitudo fidellum ("the Church is the multitude of the faithful"). Qwertyus 12:41, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] multitude indeed goes much further back than spinoza

i agree with the comment made above. . .i was motivated to make this comment here to express the same sentiment. since the lengthy pedigree of the concept of multitude has already been mentioned, i will just comment here that for negri, the work of machiavelli on the concept of the multitude is, if not as crucial to him as spinoza's, of an extremely important nature to his work. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dykun (talk • contribs) 20:53, 7 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] correct, but please add to history rather than take whole history section out

In fact the concept of multitude can be traced back at least to several Stoic writers. So indeed it is not a Spinozian concept. However, I think the history of the concept (in which the Hobbes-Spinoza duality plays an important role) adds a informative background to the contemporary use and this is why I put back the history section that was taken out as a whole. Please expand upon the history, rather than take it out again.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wiel (User talk:Wiel) • 22 July 2007.