Spinoza: Right as Power and Freedom of Thought

The Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) offered one of the most radical reinterpretations of natural right. In his Theological-Political Treatise, published anonymously in 1670, he argued that every natural thing has as much right as it has power: big fish, by natural right, eat small fish. Natural right, in this sense, is not a moral permission but simply the extent of what something can do. Yet Spinoza drew surprising conclusions.

Because no ruler can truly control people's thoughts, he argued, a government that tries to do so is acting against its own power and will provoke resistance. The real purpose of the state, he wrote, is freedom, and a wise state allows people to think what they like and say what they think. Spinoza had been expelled from Amsterdam's Portuguese Jewish community in 1656, and his treatise was widely condemned. He shows that a power-based view of right could still support toleration and free expression.