Multitude (philosophy)

Multitude is a term in philosophy referring to a collective of people defined not by a shared identity, but by a common mode of existence. The concept has deep roots in historical texts. In ancient philosophy, thinkers explored the nature and role of "the many", typically in social and political contexts. Niccolò Machiavelli treated the multitude pragmatically, focusing on the passions and employing a form of realism near the dawn of early modern philosophy. The concept gained prominence in the 17th century through the work of Thomas Hobbes and Baruch Spinoza, who developed the term as part of their broader engagements with contemporary events and intellectual history, using increasingly technical language.

Focusing on mechanism in philosophy amid the Scientific Revolution, Hobbes sought to apply principles of classical mechanics to model human behavior and political organization. He conceptualized the multitude as an unstable pre-political mass. He argued that it benefited from cohesion and unification, which required the force of a social contract with a sovereign authority. At the time, there were debates over absolute monarchy, which culminated in English Civil War.

In the prosperous, tolerant, and unstable Dutch Republic, Spinoza recognized the multitude's immanent potential for rational self-organization and collective power, arguably seeing it as foundational to democratic agency. However, he held reservations about its volatility, grounded in his theory of the affects. He stressed that the multitude's inadequate understanding made it liable to control by superstition or charismatic authority.

In contemporary philosophy, thinkers revived the concept mostly from Spinoza, while also drawing on the work of Karl Marx. Together, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri reinterpreted the multitude more globally as a plural, autonomous, and radically democratic, even revolutionary, subject. They saw it as capable of resisting imperialism and the exploitation of labor, and of transforming political systems and institutions more broadly.