SPINOZA ON POSITIVE FREEDOM

Much of the liberal tradition in political thought has shared Isaiah B erlin's fears about all positive concepts of liberty. Indeed these fea rs seem justified in relation to Marx and Hegel. However, the danger o f a tyrannical paternalism derives not from the concept of positive fr eedom itself but from the reification of the self associated with rati onalism. Spinoza's monism and his notion of individual conatus make an y rationalist reification of the self implausible. Consequently his ac count of positive freedom enriches rather than undermines the commitme nt to negative liberty, whilst also helping to explain his ability to reconcile liberal toleration with the strikingly Hobbesian premisses o f his political philosophy.