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Spinoza on Freedom & Bondage
by
Kenneth Shouler, Ph.D.
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- Spinoza applied necessity to God & humans
- Spinoza said human beings do not act freely
- Spinoza said knowledge of God combats emotions
Since everything is what it is, not by choice but by necessity, this impacts human beings as well. If God is one substance and all other things “modes” or modifications of that one substance, then necessity applies to human beings, too. Insofar as human beings understand why everything is as it is, the more genuine their knowledge is. A person possesses more happiness and “peace of mind” in proportion as his knowledge is more genuine.
Determinism is the doctrine that everything in nature cannot be other than what it is. This applies not only to “objects” in nature—that is, to all sorts of material things—but applies to human nature as well. Human beings do not act freely. In Part I Spinoza wrote:
All things depend on the power of God. That things should be different from what they are would involve a change in the will of God, and the will of God cannot change (as we have most clearly shown from the perfection of God): therefore things could not be otherwise than as they are.
Because of this,
There is no mind absolute or free will, but the mind is determined for willing this or that by a cause which is determined in its turn by another cause, and this one again by another, and so on to infinity.
These passages reveal Spinoza as a thorough-going determinist. Still, Part V of his Ethics is entitled “Concerning the Power of the Intellect or Human Freedom.” In this section he shows that the use of one’s intellect may “lead to liberty.”
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