Spinozan Democracy I. Affect and Reason Sample Clauses

Spinozan Democracy I. Affect and Reason. Just as Spinoza’s human individual has an index of power related to that individual’s ability to organize his or her affects and through the individual’s self-conception and understanding of what increases their power, so the state has a similar index of power. The state, for Spinoza, is a complex individual of a higher order than the human individual, 234 but with similar problems of organization. Just as the human body is complex and pulled in different directions by the forces acting upon it, so the state is made up of parts, human individuals, who are themselves pulled in different directions by external and internal forces. To unify the state, to make it into an individual, the affects of those component individuals must be organized somehow. Now, just as for the individual, one cannot make a leap directly to reason, so most states begin as political communities which are organized affectively. Through common love or fear, individuals join together for common purpose and to increase their power.235 Just as the individual can increase their power through active affects, so a state can become more powerful, and from its initial principles for living, shared social or economic exchange, share goals or laws based on shared customs, it can develop laws which are based on reason, that are, in other words, the best for those individuals living in that state. So the state can follow the path of empowerment 234 E2P13L7S 235 E4P37S, TP2.13; Love is preferable; E4App.XI, TP 2. 15. just as individuals can, by: 1. organizing its affects and coordinating the individuals within it, and