131. - Multitude

Summary

During the drafting of the TTP, Spinoza still seemed quite skeptical about the judgment of the multitude (multitudo). In fact, he then used two main terms to refer to all citizens: either the people (populus) or the crowd (vulgus). Populus, in the chapters that analyze the Bible, designates the Hebrew people, as opposed to Moses or the kings, and the regime that preceded the monarchy was called “the kingdom of the people [populi regnum].” In the last chapters of the Treatise, devoted specifically to politics, the term also applies to the Romans, the English, the Dutch: it refers to those to whom laws are given and for whose “salvation,” that is, welfare, the republic is constituted; the people are the source of legitimacy, without necessarily being the actor in the story. The vulgus, on the other hand, is the passionate, ignorant, and superstitious mass, which is easily manipulated by theologians. At this stage, Spinoza seldom uses the word “multitude [multitudo]” and gives it an anthropological meaning close to vulgus: twice in the Preface he cites its tendency to superstition (TTPpref 8 and TTPpref 13); twice in the last chapters he emphasizes its inconstancy and cruelty (TTP17.14, TTP18.