UNDER THE ASPECT OF ETERNITY: THINKING FREEDOM IN SPINOZA'S ETHICS

This paper offers an interpretation of the role of freedom in Spinoza's Ethics. Given that Spinoza is usually thought of as a thinker of determinism (or better: necessity), I explain how his thinking of freedom only makes sense insofar as one recognizes the importance of what he describes as the three kinds of knowing, in relation to the affects. The difference between freedom and slavery lies in how one receives and interprets the affects, i.e. the force of the external world. To affirm the necessity of your disposition and thrownness is to take part in the free necessity that Spinoza describes.