On The Idea Of Potency: Juridical And Theological Roots Of The Western Cultural Tradition

201 Pages·2018·0.696 MB·English

by  Emanuele Castrucci

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Critiques the metaphysical concept of power and ot
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Sweeping through the history of Western philosophy of law, Emanuele Castrucci e
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Castrucci first addresses how potency can limit the power ascribed to an CY
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then relates potency to the classical philosophical tradition in Aristotle’s Metaphysics l
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and its Arabic interpretations, particularly those of Ibn Rushd’s (Averroës). This r
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leads us to the genesis of natural law theory in Western philosophy, from Aquinas di Juridical and Theological
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Moving on, Castrucci examines the inherently problematic concept of political
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Castrucci applies the theories of Carl Schmitt to the philosophical rationalism of M
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the Western tradition, showing us how it has failed to contain absolute power in a
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Emanuele Castrucciis Professor of Philosophy of Law and the University of Siena. He

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taught previously at the Universities of Florence and Genoa. His studies mainly concern
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the domain of the history of legal and political ideas. He has contributed to the diffusion in
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Italy of the thought of Carl Schmitt, editing the Italian edition of Der Nomos der Erde im T
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Völkerrecht des Jus publicum Europaeum(1991).
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Cover image: www.shutterstock.com
Cover design: www.hayesdesign.co.uk
ISBN: 978-1-4744-1185-1
www.euppublishing.com

ON THE IDEA OF POTENCY
ENCOUNTERS IN LAW AND PHILOSOPHY
SERIES EDITORS: Thanos Zartaloudis and Anton Schütz
This series interrogates, historically and theoretically, the encounters
between philosophy and law. Each volume published takes a
unique approach and challenges traditional approaches to law and
philosophy.
General Advisor
Giorgio Agamben
Advisory Board
Oren Ben-Dor, Law School, University of Southampton, UK
Anne Bottomley, Law School, University of Kent, UK
Justin Clemens, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, Australia
Emanuele Coccia, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France
Jas´ Elsner, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, UK & Department of Art
History, University of Chicago, USA
Peter Goodrich, Cardozo Law School, Yeshiva University, New York, USA
Piyel Haldar, Birkbeck College, Law School, University of London, UK
Pierre Lochak, Centre de Mathématiques de Jussieu, Université Paris 6
Pierre et Marie Curie, France
Nathan Moore, Law School, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
Alexander Murray, English, University of Exeter, UK
Clemens Pornschlegel, Institut für Germanistik, Universität München,
Germany
Alain Pottage, Law School, London School of Economics, UK
Jacob Schmutz, Department of Philosophy and Sociology, Paris-Sorbonne
University, France
Jessica Whyte, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, University
of Western Sydney, Australia
Robert Young, English, New York University, USA
edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/enlp
ON THE IDEA
OF POTENCY
Juridical and
Theological Roots
of the Western
Cultural Tradition
Emanuele Castrucci
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses
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© Emanuele Castrucci, 2016
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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The right of Emanuele Castrucci to be identified as author of this work
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Contents
Preface ix
I. The Logos of Potency: A Theoretical Introduction 1
1. A Being «permeated by logos». Substance-logos
and function-logos 1
2. Deus contra Deum? 2
3. Aporias of Leibniz’s solution 3
4. Spinoza vs Leibniz 4
5. The «arcanum» of logos 5
6. An interpretive hypothesis 6
II. Logos of ‘Potentia Dei’ 8
1. Potency and power. Spinoza’s ethics of «potency
of what is living» 8
2. «Analogy of potency» 11
3. The Aristotelian dynamis 12
4. Beaufret’s hypothesis 14
5. Substantial differences in medieval
interpretations of Aristotle 15
6. Greek-Arabic «necessitarism» and Hebraic
anthropomorphic theology 16
7. The fight against necessitarism 18
8. Potency and creation 20
9. Two models of natural law 21
10. System of substance-ideas and personal God 22
11. Summary 23
III. ‘Potentia Ordinata’ vs ‘Potentia Absoluta’ 25
1. Ontology of potency against ethics of will 25
On the Idea of Potency
2. The misunderstandings of Aquinas 26
3. Definitions of «potentia absoluta».
The ‘jurisprudential’ model of «potentia absoluta»
in Duns Scotus 29
4. The ‘logical’ model of «potentia absoluta»
in Ockham. Courtenay’s thesis 34
IV. Political Theology Reconsidered 40
1. A pattern of correspondences 40
2. Cartesian theology: creation and constitution 43
3. Leibniz and essences independent of God 48
4. Spinoza and the inadmissibility of a «theological
constitutionalism» 52
5. Schmitt’s interpretation of Spinoza: the link
between «constitutive potency» and «constituent
power» 56
V. Genealogies of Constituent Potency: Schmitt,
Nietzsche, Spinoza 61
1. Analogies and genealogies 61
2. Natural potency and constituent power 62
3. Counterforces 63
4. Hypothesis 65
5. Against any normativist universalism 66
Threshold 69
Corollaries 71
I. On the Origins of Conventionalist Political
Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century 73
1. Introversion 73
2. Disorder 76
3. Subdivision of spaces 80
4. Formalisation of exteriority 84
5. Convention 88
vi
Contents
II. The Problem of a Political Theology 94
1. First definitions 94
2. The ultimate foundation of legitimacy in politics 96
3. The metaphysical presuppositions of nihilist
theology. Jus reformandi or jus revolutionis 98
4. Legitimacy vs legality. The so-called «need for
legitimacy» 100
5. Theological-political objectivism? 102
6. Some concluding theses and a final doubt 103
III. Rhetoric of Ethical Universalism: Jürgen
Habermas and the Dissolution of Political Realism 109
1. A ‘civitas maxima’ of progress? 109
2. Habermas’s arguments 111
3. Misrepresentations of Kant’s universalism 114
4. Three counter-theses on the rights of man 120
5. Conclusions 125
Notes 131
Bibliography 169
Index 183
vii
For these latter persons seem to set up something beyond God,
which does not depend on God, but which God in acting looks
to as an exemplar, or which he aims at as a definite goal.
(Spinoza, Eth., I, pr. 33, sch. 2)
It used to be said that God could create anything except what
would be contrary to the laws of logic. The truth is that we
could not say what an ‘illogical’ world would look like.
(Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus, 3.031)
to L.L.V.,
for what he has been