Dispassion, God, and Nature

Abstract

Spinoza is a severe critic of Maimonides and the whole medieval theistic tradition. Nevertheless, as recent philosophical scholarship has shown, Spinoza shares much with Maimonides in his own philosophical outlook. In this chapter I point to an important commonality in their respective views of the human good, namely the emphasis each places upon dispassion as a corollary of any deep understanding of God and/or nature.