Truth and Justice in Spinoza’s Theological–Political Treatise and the Ethics

André Kistler ()
Additional contact information
André Kistler: Faculty of Law, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland

Laws, 2023, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: Spinoza’s philosophy argues for the freedom of individuals as singular beings in the state. This freedom is not perfect yet immanent. Freedom—according to the Ethics —is a consequence of true knowledge and virtue, which must be able to develop and can only be realised gradually. The state and the laws establish the framework that makes this freedom possible. Freedom and true knowledge are basic concepts of the metaphysical system. Justice, however, appears as a legal and political concept in Spinoza’s thought, which the philosopher did not discuss in depth. Nevertheless, the concept of justice has a specific significance in the philosophical context in which it occurs in the TTP —especially in the wisdom of King Solomon —and in the Ethics . Justice, on the one hand, strengthens harmony, security, and freedom. On the other hand, the freedom to philosophise forms a condition for justice to develop according to reason. The knowledge that justice has a importance in Spinoza’s thought is consistent with the complexity of his philosophy and makes its understanding more complete.

Keywords: truth; justice; Spinoza; freedom; immanence; normativity; history of philosophy of law and society (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/12/3/39/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/12/3/39/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:12:y:2023:i:3:p:39-:d:1135783

Access Statistics for this article

Laws is currently edited by Ms. Heather Liang

More articles in Laws from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().