Simon Duffy's Logic of Expression, Introduction, "Spinoza and the Problem of Expression," §1

by Corry Shores
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[The following summarizes Simon Duffy's extraordinary book, The Logic of Expression: Quality, Quantity and Intensity in Spinoza, Hegel and Deleuze, Introduction, §1.

Duffy's work is remarkable, so I highly recommend this book. If it costs too much, perhaps encourage your library to obtain a copy.]

Simon Duffy. The Logic of Expression: Quality, Quantity and Intensity in Spinoza, Hegel and Deleuze, Introduction, §1:

Duffy will demonstrate that Deleuze "redeploys" Spinoza's ideas into a philosophy of difference. Deleuze stands apart from his contemporary French Spinoza scholars Gueroult and Macherey: Hegel places Spinoza in a dialectical history of philosophy, and Deleuze's unique approach offers an alternate philosophical lineage (1b.d).

In his article 'Spinoza et la méthode de Gueroult' ('Gueroult's General Method for Spinoza'), Deleuze outlines the philosophical project of his Expressionism in Philosophy to renew the history of philosophy, which is twofold:

1) to deploy a structural-genetic criteria in accordance with the logic of different/ciation of differential calculus, and

2) to construct an alternative philosophical lineage beginning with Spinoza and continuing through Leibniz, Hume, Nietzsche, and Bergson, to all of which Deleuze devotes entire books.

(2a-d)

Macherey criticizes Deleuze for misconstruing Spinoza, just as he shows that Hegel misreads Spinoza so to subsume him under his dialectical history of philosophy (3a.c).

Deleuze also regards Spinoza's philosophy as immune to Hegel's critique, and so Spinoza plays a major role in Deleuze's tracing an alternate philosophical lineage that bypasses Hegelian idealism (3d). Duffy's unique approach will compare Hegel's and Deleuze's interpretations of Spinoza (3-4).

Duffy will show that Deleuze and Hegel attribute different philosophical significances to Spinoza's contributions to calculus. Deleuze's particular approach allows him to apply his logic of different/ciation to produce an original interpretation of Spinoza. (4c.d)

Duffy, Simon. The Logic of Expression: Quality, Quantity and Intensity in Spinoza, Hegel and Deleuze. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2006.