Spinoza on the Intellect

Spinoza believed that the greatest of all joys was the joy of learning, of the acquisition of knowledge, and of expanding one’s horizons by deep understanding. For him, more knowledge implied gaining more clarity on the real order of things in nature.

He realized early in life that the mind gets heavily affected by a multitude of things. So he decided to seek only that which did not affect the peace of his mind as most things did. And all this he did with a desire to enjoy ‘continual supreme happiness’ as he calls it.

According to Spinoza, all those chasing money or fame are never at ease with their possessions. The pursuit of these things only breeds an insatiable desire to have more of it. And the minute it dawns upon them that it can no longer be further satisfied, a deep and excruciating pain arises within their hearts. Thus, he felt that man must only chase that infinite object which will never cause him despair. And he believed that knowledge alone fits into this description.

“What more or better can be said of any condition of human affairs than that it brings human beings themselves nearer to the best thing they can be or what worse can be said of any obstruction to good than that it prevents this?”

— J. S. Mill (1947, Ch3, p. 121)

Although these are the words of the 19th century English philosopher, J.S. Mill, it very much echoes the words of what Spinoza believed in. He asserted that there existed a close relation between the acquisition of knowledge and the process of self realization. The notion of self realization would mean to fully be aware of one’s true nature and attain the highest perfection of which nature he is capable. The unintended result would be a revelation of one’s own potentialities and the emergence of a drive fueled by the motivation to utilize them for the enhancement of one’s life.

The power of freedom, too, emanates from knowledge alone. Spinoza says a learned man is akin to someone who is free because his decisions are always guided by his reason and not by the opinion of others or by the effect that something has on him. A man shall lead his life satisfactorily when every action is influenced by principles constituted by himself and not imposed by external factors.

Another benefit of making self-realization the central idea of one’s life is that then the mind of such a man can easily identify all those activities which do not endeavor to lead to self-preservation thereby liberating him from fruitless activities. The below extract from his work BOOK IV is reflective of this nugget of thought:

“Man’s lack of power to moderate and restrain the affects I call Bondage. For the man who is subject to affects is under control, not of himself, but of fortune, in whose power he so greatly is that often, though he sees the better for himself, he is still forced to follow the worse”

To sum up, Spinoza says that the good life is one where man is free from the wants of fortune or fame. His only aim shall be self-preservation and all that is good for his own well-being by actualizing all his potentialities. Man shall feel obliged to act in a certain way by the dictates of his reason alone. And the ability to reason right shall be nurtured by educational enlightenment.