The Political Meaning of the Debate on Necessity and Human Nature in Spinoza's Tractatus Politicus

Abstract

Much ink has been spilled over the relationship between the problem of human nature and politics. One might argue that political models and perspectives are the extensions of how one approaches the problem of human nature. Accordingly, debates over the problem of human nature have also been at the very centre of the quest for a good political society. Moving from this axis, the aim of this study is to take a glance at the political meaning of the debate of necessity and human nature in Spinoza's Tractatus Politicus. In so doing, the study first deals with the relationship between necessity and human nature and then scrutinizes the connection between necessity and politics. The major argument of this study is that Spinoza's approach to the problem of human nature cannot be reduced to an essentialist dichotomy between optimism and pessimism.