“Nemo non videt”: Intuitive Knowledge and the Question of Spinoza’s Elitism

Abstract

Hasana Sharp rejects the view, held by many Spinoza scholars, that Spinoza’s account of the highest kind of knowledge, the scientia intuitiva, is “incomprehensible.” She also resists the widespread “elitist” interpretation of this kind of knowledge. Sharp argues that, on the one hand, scientia intuitiva is to some extent accessible to everyone. On the other—and this is a point usually not taken into account by scholars—its difficulty stems from the fragility of knowledge for all human beings qua finite beings, not just from the intellectual limitations of the vulgus.