ABSTRACT
Part IV of the Ethics presents a picture of the life of the Spinozist sage, the ‘free man’. The character Spinoza portrays is ‘free’ both in that he has overcome his passions so far as may be (E IV, 1S) and in that his actions are to the greatest possible extent self-determined. The picture we are given is as beautiful and as impressive as anything of its kind in philosophy; it can be compared with Aristotle’s study of the ‘great-souled man’, which it seems intended to rival (Nicomachean Ethics, IV, Section 3). For Spinoza, the idea of freedom is indissolubly linked with that of Reason: the free man is led by Reason (E IV, 73) and lives by its dictates (E IV, 67). The present chapter explores Spinoza’s handling of these ideas.
