BARUCH SPINOZA
He asks how understanding the causes and necessities behind emotion can transform passive reaction into greater freedom and active agency.
1632–1677RationalismNetherlands
Other names and spellings
바뤼흐 스피노자 · 바루흐 스피노자 · 스피노자 · Benedict de Spinoza
Core ideas
AFFECTNECESSITYREASONFREEDOMACTIVE AGENCY
Works & sources
Ethics, Part V, Proposition 3
BARUCH SPINOZA, a first reading
Spinoza understood human beings as part of nature and explored the relation between emotion and freedom.
Emotion and freedom: what does it mean?
Understanding the causes of emotion clarifies what moves us. Freedom does not mean escaping nature's causal order; it concerns becoming more active through understanding and less passively governed by external causes.
Explore the thinker and concept ↗