Emilia Marra | The Interposed Space: the Continuum between Mathematics and Physics

The interposed space: the continuum between mathematics and physics
Amongst the passages in which Hegel focuses on the mathematical example proposed by Spinoza in Epistle 32, known as the Letter on Infinity, an anything but incidental variation appears: in the second edition of the Science of Logic, the space between the circumferences, initially presented as infinite because the nature of the thing transcends all determinacy, is thought of as infinite but limited as well. In both editions, the infinity of imagination is contrasted with the infinity of thought or infinitum actu. This Hegelian interpretation, confirmed with an even freer gesture in the Lectures, captures an anti-Aristotelian tension in Spinoza’s conception of the infinite, but forces the contours of the proposed example by bending it in the direction of a finite quantum that exceeds whatever number is assigned to it. The Spinozian emphasis placed on the constant variation in the distance between the two circumferences falls into the background here, allowing Hegel to deviate from that ‘intensive infinity’ which designates the immanentist trajectory, whose risk is to sacrifice determination to the continuous. The move is played out through Kant’s critique of quantitative infinity, praised elsewhere by Hegel. Since the infinite expression is to be found in the finite expression, and not in an infinite series, the Spinozian variation in scale is therefore inadequate in rendering what is to all intents and purposes a thought about the determinations of power.
Emilia Marra (PhD), is a former fellow of the IISF (Napoli) and of the CAS (Rijeka). She translated in Italian Macherey’s Hegel o Spinoza (2016) and she wrote Mantenere insieme: strategie del sistema nella Francia post-strutturalista (2023).
The international philosophical conference Between Substance & Subject. The Presence of Spinoza in Hegel (26-28 October 2023, AGRFT, Ljubljana) was organized by the University of Padua and the University of Ljubljana - Faculty of Arts & Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television. The conference was carried out as part of the project Hegel's Political Metaphysics (J6-2590), which is financed by the Slovenian Research Agency.
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