Talk:Multitude (philosophy)

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Philosophy: Social and political Low‑importance

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	Social and political philosophy

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)[reply]

multitude indeed goes much further back than spinoza[edit]

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).[reply]

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

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.

This is bonkers[edit]

"Multitude is a political term first used by Machiavelli" - er, no. It's a word for the masses used at least as early as the first book of the Hebrew Bible. As it stands, this article is bonkers. It either needs editing by somebody who can make clear the article is about a political system; or it needs deleting. Croakfoods (talk) 07:18, 8 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This article needs a clear definition of the multitude[edit]

The opening passage only describes the multitude as a "political term". If somebody could explain what it generally refers to in the opening passage, the whole text would be easier to read for someone who is not familiar with the concept.

New user attempting to correct details[edit]

Hi. Caveat: no idea what I'm doing. I'm going to make a few changes to the start of the section, but I think someone with more skill with wikipedia than I should make some general corrections. The issue with the start of this article is that the term 'multitude' gains certain qualities with the work of Machiavelli that is distinct from the uses of the term by the Stoics or the Bible. I am unfamiliar with these uses of the term, and cannot elaborate on them very much. This would indicate to me that the Italian Marxist discussions of the multitude, including the use of the term in immanent philosophies, is one that has to be separated from the broader use of the word. Such clarification will need to be performed by someone else. 128.250.0.78 (talk) 05:03, 7 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"The multitude is used as a term and implied as a concept throughout Spinoza's work"[edit]

This is incorrect...Spinoza only uses multitude in the Political Treatise. The term doesn't even appear in the Theological-Political Treates, where he uses vulgas - people, masses... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kbozbj (talk • contribs) 18:51, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Article Redirection[edit]

Hi folks, I have gone ahead and renamed this page to 'Multitude (Philosophy)'. I think it is fairly obvious that this page is not discussing the term multitude as a whole—e.g. etymologically and/or historically speaking—but only in part: that of its relation to political philosophy (see edit history for further explanation). To be clear, I am fairly new to editing, so the transition may not have been seamless. Will be looking over the page to make sure all links, citations, etc. have migrated successfully. Cheers! OinopaPonton (talk) 22:02, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think this was too hasty a move without discussion. Wikipedia is not a dictionary. This article stinks, like so many Wikipedia articles, but if it's as close as possible to a primary topic for the term "multitude", then it's best to leave the title at Multitude. None of the other articles at Multitude (disambiguation) come anywhere close to rivaling prominence of the topic discussed in this article, with or without parenthetical disambiguation. Unless you plan to create a new article on a general concept of multitude that is more than a mere dictionary definition, it's rather pointless busywork. --Animalparty! (talk) 01:53, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the input. As mentioned, quite new to editing and still very much learning the ropes. If you truly think letting the title remain "Multitude" is the best option, I'm happy to defer to your judgement! Having said that, I don't quite agree that the change is pointless busywork. Otherwise, you wouldn't have taken the time to give your (appreciated) input. Leaving the title as is implies that the article is something that it simply is not: an overview of the general concept.

As you rightly mention, Wikipedia is not a dictionary. Nor is it a place, however, where easily resolvable ambiguity need be left unchecked. At least personally—and again this is coming from limited experience—it seems better to leave the term "multitude" primary-topic-less (Wikipedia ≠ dictionary) than to keep confusing people. OinopaPonton (talk) 02:27, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]