Summary:
In his main political work, the "Theological and Political Treatise", Spinoza establishes and defines Democracy as the state that ensures the maximum happiness and freedom of man, principles that, among other things, allow free thought as the necessary condition for acquiring knowledge. For Spinoza, democracy is the only organized socio-political regime on the basis of which a "solid" State can be established, contrasting it with absolutist states in which the cohesive bond of the body politic is "unstable" fear. In other words, democracy is the normative foundation of every stable society, while cooperation within it is the condition for the individual empowerment of every person.
In "Ethics" he sets the ontological and methodological conditions that help to understand human nature as a synthesis of rational activity and imagination-emotions. In this way, however, he also defines the mechanism of "sociality" of man that pushes him to form communities as rational and at the same time pathological generations. In his later work "political treatise", among other things, he finds and describes the inevitable existence of disagreements, while he reflects on the possibility of building a state within which consensus can be produced, through the communication and management of different opinions through understanding of their causes.
The paper, based on Spinoza's philosophical system, will examine his theory of passions, as well as its connection with his political philosophy. The goal is to identify what "disagreement" means, what passions arise from it and how understanding and managing them can help shape a democratic dialogue, at least at the level of mutual understanding of the disagreeing individuals• if not at that of agreement or synthesis of different opinions. At the same time, there will be a study of the actions (actiones) that he identifies as favorable for the formation of a fruitful dialogue, even if it leads to disagreement. Perhaps the knowledge of emotional influences (affectus), as well as the understanding and management of the passions that arise through disagreement, can form the background for the formation of a democratic state.
Keywords:
Spinoza, Democracy, Politics, Passions, Emotions, Emotional Affects, Ethics, Disagreement
