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Determinism → Freedom

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Setup

  1. 1. Nothing in nature is contingent
  2. 2. Will cannot be called a free cause
  3. 3. Things could not have been produced otherwise
  4. 4. Our knowledge of ourselves and external things is mostly inadequate
  5. 5. Adequate ideas are true through themselves
  6. 6. Reason is the second kind of knowledge

Demonstration

  1. 7. Reason perceives things under a form of eternity
  2. 8. The human mind has adequate knowledge of God's essence
  3. 9. There is no free will in the mind
  4. 10. Will and understanding are one and the same
  5. 11. Determinism is universal, but bondage is specifically human

Consequence

  1. 12. Bondage defined: seeing the better, following the worse
  2. 13. An emotion is overcome only by a stronger contrary emotion
  3. 14. The highest good is the knowledge of God
  4. 15. Rational people agree in nature and desire good for others
  5. 16. The free man thinks least of death
  6. 17. The free man: courageous, honest, and more free in civil society

Recap

  1. 18. Blessedness is virtue itself
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Spinoza cites it

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