From Virtue to Freedom through Emotion

Abstract

Spinoza conceived human freedom as a matter solely of rationality, but an understanding of the role emotion plays in moral virtue can lead one toward viewing emotionality as also essential to human freedom. A large part of human freedom consists in our tendency to give intrinsic importance to people or things outside ourselves and take them into our lives; this sense of importance, in rich and various ways, brings emotion into the center of our lives and our freedom as individuals.

Keywords

altruism / egoism / emotion / expansion / freedom / human lives / neutral motives / spontaneity / virtue

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Brill