Spinoza was summoned in 20th century to kill the Hegelian demon infecting Marx. It was also used to provide the latter with a new precursor. And thus Spinoza the materialist protomarxist was born. Concepts like substance, immanence or multitude have been used for leftist politics. However, his whole system of deduction and demonstration, that makes him a magnificent representant of rationalism, was simply wiped out. The same happened in Western Marxism: dialectic was seen as too Hegelian to be truly revolutionary. The problem is that in both cases the argumentative element was erased leaving beautiful but arbitrary images of matter, society and revolution.
Arturo Romero Contreras Profesor Investigador en Filosofía BUAP/ Professor Researcher in Philosophy BUAP, Mexico