Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-vmclg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-24T01:13:51.405Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

74. - Freedom (Metaphysical)

from F

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

By
Olli Koistinen
Edited by
Karolina Hübner  and
Justin Steinberg
Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

Freedom (libertas) in Spinoza may mean freedom of choice or freedom of origination. There is no freedom of choice. To say that S freely chose X at t means that S did X but this action was not causally determined. S could have done something else instead of X. In Spinoza’s universe, there is no room for such freedom of choice. Spinoza was a necessitarian. God exists necessarily and

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon , pp. 188 - 191
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Recommended Reading

Carriero, J. (2005). Spinoza on final causality. Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, 2, 105–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Della Rocca, M. (2019). Steps toward Eleaticism in Spinoza’s philosophy of action. In Naaman-Zauderer, N. (ed.), Freedom, Action, and Motivation in Spinoza’s “Ethics” (pp. 13–30). Routledge.Google Scholar
Koistinen, O. (2009). Spinoza on action. In Koistinen, O. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza’s Ethics (pp. 122–38). Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nadler, S. (2014). On Spinoza’s “free man.” Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 1, 103–20.Google Scholar
Soyarslan, S. (2019). Two ethical ideals in Spinoza’s ethics: The free man and the wise man. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 5, 357–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×