On Love by Baruch Spinoza (1660)
Love is defined as the enjoyment of a thing and union with it, and it varies according to the object known and loved. Objects are divided into transient things that began to exist, enduring modes that depend on a cause, and the eternal, self-sustaining reality called God or Truth. Love arises from knowledge: the greater and more glorious an object appears, the greater the love for it. Love can be displaced only by knowledge of something better or by discovering that the beloved object brings suffering. People do not ordinarily seek release from love, both because love depends on the good they perceive in its object rather than on free choice, and because human weakness requires union with something from which strength may be drawn. Love of transient things cannot strengthen human nature, because such things are themselves weak and subject to accidents beyond the lover’s power. Union with them makes a person miserable whenever they change or are harmed. Honor, riches, and pleasures are even worse objects of love, since they have no reality whatever. Reason therefore teaches withdrawal from fleeting goods, whose apparent enjoyment conceals poison and evil and keeps people from a more excellent good. Things are said to be within human power when they can be produced through the order of Nature, of which humans are a part; things outside that power cannot be altered by humans because they lie far from their real essence as formed by Nature. The second kind of object, though eternal and imperishable, consists of modes that depend immediately on God. Such modes cannot be conceived without conceiving God. Since God is perfect, love must rest in Him if understanding is used rightly. God alone has essence, while all other things are modes, and knowledge of those modes depends upon knowledge of the entity on which they depend. Since one abandons a lesser loved thing upon knowing something better, knowledge of God, who possesses every perfection, necessarily produces love of Him. God is also the first cause of all things, so knowledge of Him precedes and grounds knowledge of everything else. True love follows knowledge of what is glorious and good; therefore no being can be loved more ardently than the Lord our God, who alone is glorious and a perfect good. Love becomes strong and finds its proper resting place only in God, before the inquiry turns to which passions should be embraced or rejected.
By Baruch Spinoza · First published 1660 · Genre: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Ethics · 1,307 words
First lines
Love, which is nothing else than the enjoyment of a thing and union therewith, we shall divide according to the qualities of its object; the object, that is, which man seeks to enjoy, and to unite himself with.
Now some objects are in themselves transient; others, indeed, are not transient by virtue of their cause. There is yet a third that is eternal and imperishable through its own power and might.
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On Love is listed on Textopian as an essay by Baruch Spinoza, dated 1660 CE.
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- Work type: Essay
- Author: Baruch Spinoza
- Date: 1660 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Ethics, Philosophy of Love, Rationalism
- Length: 1,307 words
- Structure: 1 section, 19 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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- Work identity for On Love by Baruch Spinoza
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
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Genres
- Philosophy — The work is a philosophical inquiry into the nature, objects, causes, and consequences of love, arguing through definitions, distinctions, and rational conclusions.
- Metaphysics — It distinguishes transient particular things, dependent eternal modes, and God as self-eternal being, grounding its account of love in an ontology of substance, causation, and existence.
- Ethics — The text evaluates forms of attachment as harmful or beneficial and prescribes directing love away from honor, wealth, pleasure, and unstable things toward God and understanding.
- Philosophy of Love — Love is the explicit central subject, defined as enjoyment and union with an object and examined according to the value and permanence of what is loved.
Tags
philosophy · ethics · metaphysics · rationalism · love · emotion · desire · joy · human nature · reason · freedom · virtue