The Social and Political Self

This chapter seeks to highlight the social and political consequences of selfrealization and to focus on the type of political state necessary for self-realization to take place. In relation to Spinoza’s approach to self-realization, there are both definite social and political issues that need to be addressed. Spinoza held that only in a democratic state would individuals be free to realize themselves. Freedom in this sense depends as much on the kind of upbringing, education and social environment in which a person is placed as on the political state.