Razón, ciudad y democracia en Benito Spinoza

Abstract

This paper attempts to show the internal unity of the three elements —ratio, civitas, libertas— which constitute the political philosophy of Spinoza. Methodologically his thought corresponds to the objective model of the new science, which implies a break with the normative model of practical reason in natural law. Spinoza departs from a physicalist ontological conception of nature, which reduces freedom
to rational necessity and natural right to the natural power of man («tantum iuris quantum potentiae»). His illustrated program «from bondage to freedom by knowledge » does not imply a normative moral solution to the problem of living together, but a genetic solution by virtue of the need to find an emergency exit to the impasse
of the natural state of war under the fear of death. In this process, reason itself emerges from the womb of affection, through the interaction of the passions of fear and sympathy with the biological principle of interest. Once it has emerged in the form of «common notions», this utilitarian reason enhances the positive feelings of sympathy and cooperation and underpins the agreement to live together under the law. On the basis of this civic contract, the difference between potentia and potestas, ius and lex respectively, people and State, is established in an internal dialectical relationship in which the multitudinis potentia is ultimately decisive. This means that the most natural and rational regime is democracy, which is the only regime that guarantees that the original natural law may become public social right.