Spinoza: Philosophy In The Time of Covid-19
The future should be faced with rational strategy aiming at collective power; the past should be regarded with equanimity.
A pandemic is surging through the human community weakening social bonds, collective strength, and individual wellbeing. In some cases it brings tragic illness and death; in all cases, it brings some measure of fear, anxiety, sadness, and anger. Yet these emotions and others like them are forces which the brilliant 17th-century philosopher Spinoza believed to be dangerous enemies both to society and the individual.
Does Spinoza, the famed heretic, radical political theorist, and moral psychologist, have any advice for us in the Covid-19 crisis? Is he right that we need to manage these emotions for the sake of us all? And if so, how?
I think he would have at least two important things to say which I will share here.
A Community of Reason
Spinoza wrote that there was really no division between individual and communal benefit. When people are guided by reason (a key if) then when they…
