스피노자의 사회정치론

초록

In this essay, I investigated the reason why Spinoza needs political philosophy in spite of his hard determinism. Afterwards, I researched his view of relationship between religion and politics in the Theological-Political Treatise, and also his argument about monarchies, aristocracies, and democracies in forms of government in the Political Treatise. In general, most people can only achieve the first kind of knowledge. They are unable to gain the highest happiness which Spinoza suggests in the Ethics, since they are unable to have an adequate idea. In order to make people saved from the fright and thus pursuing happiness, Spinoza tries to seek the best policies and systems of government such as monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. The analysis and demonstration of appropriate principles of the constitutions for each form of government is the main task of the Political Treatise. For Spinoza himself, the purpose of state is to offer people a real freedom. He believed that democracy is the most natural form of government which guarantees freedom and equality. Thus, in the Theological-Political Treatise, he strongly suggested that democracy is the best format of which a government can pursue.

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