Scribano, Emanuela:
Causalité de la raison et liberté selon Spinoza

In: Revue Philosophique de Louvain 107, 7 (2009), 567-582

Literature type: Articles
Language: French
Thematic areas: Metaphysics / ontology, Epistemology / methodology / philosophy of mind, Ethics
Subject: E

English commentary: "Spinoza maintains that only God can properly be said to be free. Yet, Spinoza himself speaks of «free man», and devotes the last section of the Ethics to human freedom. In this article, I investigate the relationship between human freedom and that of God in Spinoza. Human and divine freedom are understood univocally only within speculative science, in which adequate ideas of the human mind are the same ideas God entertains. On the other hand, knowledge of moral values in regard to practical action always implies a certain degree of inadequate knowledge of things and of oneself. Hence, God does not share moral values. Human mind itself, when it achieves the eternal dimension of adequate knowledge, is beyond practical virtues" (abstract)

Link to this page: http://spinoza.hab.de/detail.php?id=19982&LANG=EN