ABSTRACT
For Spinoza the supreme end of the civil state is to institute conditions of peace and security of life in which men can achieve 'true excellence of the mind'. Civil law, for Spinoza, is an agency of social control which can be distinguished from other agencies of the state by what could be called its instrumentality, its mode of functioning. civil law is a command issued by the sovereign with sanctions expressive of its compulsive aspect. Spinoza, in characterizing civil law as a command, emphasizes a significant distinction from what he calls natural law and Divine law which are not commands. Spinoza speaks of fundamental laws which are 'eternal', that is, they are regulations which are in force throughout successions of sovereigns. The civil state, for Spinoza, has its foundations in the fact that men, discovering they can better achieve material security and initiate intellectual and moral development, with or without a prior contract, to form a civil community.
