Some notes on the individual process of liberation in Spinoza

Abstract

A central theme of Spinoza’s Ethica is the description of the individual’s exposition to the emergence of passions: the individual’s mind is constitutively liable to being passive in relation to the influences exercised on the mind by reality since the mind is a part of nature. As regards the individual’s condition, being passive means having passions: passions bring the individual to a condition of mental enslavement due to the influence coming from the external reality. Spinoza tries to find a way out of the passions: through the analysis of the structure of reality and of the individual’s mind, Spinoza shows that the development of knowledge of reality in the mind is the solution for the process of liberation of the mind. The power of the individual’s mind consists in the knowledge of reality: therefore, the possibility, for the individual, to reach an authentic power of mind consists in the acquisition of the knowledge of reality. This acquisition comes about exclusively through the appropriate education. Through the knowledge, the individual becomes able to counteract his being acted on by the external reality: he can lead his life instead of being steadily led by the influences coming from outside. We base our inquiry on Spinoza’s Ethica.