SOURCE: “Spinoza on Self-Consciousness and Nationalism,” in History of European Ideas, Vol. XVI, No. 4-6, 1993, pp. 915-20.

In the essay that follows, Freeman considers Spinoza's conception of self-consciousness and nationalism to be extensions of his “ontological-physical” model of humanity.

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In this essay I focus upon the concept of self-consciousness and nationalism as developed in Spinoza's physics, psychology of man, and extended into his treatment of political community. Spinoza is a seventeenth century thinker who advances a unique interpretation of man that is firmly grounded in the rich and varied modes of philosophical self-consciousness. This interpretation of the Dutch philosopher is essentially an ‘ontological-physical’ model of man, a logical extension from the Ethics to his political writings, which is rife with political and sociological consequences for nationalism itself.

I shall argue that Spinoza, following the principle of metaphysical concreteness, advances a view of self-consciousness and the nation that...