Le salut par les affects : La joie comme ressort du progrès éthique chez Spinoza

Abstract

This paper proposes a revisitation of the ethical progress in knowledge in Spinoza from the perspective of the affectivity that accompanies it. Consequently, joy deserves a privileged place in the analysis of the transition from imagination to reason, not as a means to explain this transition itself- -which is done automatically through the comparison of ideas of the first kind with each other―but to give an account of the arising of a desire for knowledge as soon as be it just one true idea is given. Furthermore, the affect of joy is also present in true knowledge, and this paper provides a broad outline of an interpretation making of intuition the affective experience of the ideas provided by rational knowledge.