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  • 8 - Spinoza's conception of law: metaphysics and ethics

  • Edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed, The Johns Hopkins University, Michael A. Rosenthal, University of Washington
  • Book:
    Spinoza's 'Theological-Political Treatise'
    Published online:
    10 January 2011
    Print publication:
    18 November 2010, pp 143-167

  • Summary

    This chapter focuses on two consequences: Spinoza's endeavor to use the notion of law (including divine law) to bridge the divide between the natural and the normative, and the role he assigns to the concept of law in underwriting the systematic unity of his ethical theory. Spinoza's general account encompasses two different notions of law. Type-I laws are descriptive propositions that state how things necessarily act, and that follow necessarily from the nature of a thing. Type-II laws are practical or action-guiding. Type-I laws are metaphysically basic, yet type-II laws are crucial to human agency. Spinoza insists that the concept of natural right is to be understood as grounded in a universal type-I law, the supreme law of nature. Spinoza holds that the claims of natural right are grounded in the necessity of the supreme law of nature, as this applies to the actions of any individual whatsoever.