Free Like Spinoza

Spinoza is the leading and most brilliant exponent of the “radical Enlightenment” identified by historian Jonathan Israël. He was not a solitary thinker, but a man engaged in his own way in a powerful movement aimed at human emancipation. Spinoza heralded “the twilight of servitude.” And it is indeed a great beginning.

Let there be no mistake. Spinoza’s enlightenment is not just about dispelling the so-called mysteries and fog of religion and replacing them with scientific, rational knowledge of reality (God or nature). Spinoza is not just some who demystifies; it is not a question of removing the imaginary flowers that camouflage the chains, but of breaking the chains that enslave man in order to pick the living flower. Understanding the laws of nature is all very well, but even more useful is understanding the laws of human nature, understanding the emotional mechanisms that enable the domination of some and the servitude of all. This is the profound meaning of ethics: how to liberate oneself, how to live well? The greatest of them all—Diderot, Hegel, Marx—drew their inspiration from this teaching.

 

Denis Collin is a philosopher and a teacher of philosophy. He has published numerous works in general philosophy and political and moral philosophy, including studies of Marx, Machiavelli and Vico. His articles and contributions are available on the Philosophy and Politics website.