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Full Idea
The freest state is that whose laws are founded on sound reason; for there each man can be free whenever he wishes, that is, he can live under the guidance of reason with his whole mind.
Gist of Idea
The freest state is a rational one, where people can submit themselves to reason
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus [1670], 16.10)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Theological-Political Treatise', ed/tr. Israel,Jonathan [CUP 2007], p.201
A Reaction
I wonder if is not so much that the state is rational as that it is right. Freedom is submission to the truth. Rationality is only good because it arrives at truth. But is there a 'truth' about how a state should be run? Enlightenment optimism.
Related Idea
Idea 19922 People are only free if they are guided entirely by reason [Spinoza]
20092 | One principle of liberty is to take turns ruling and being ruled [Aristotle] |
19924 | The freest state is a rational one, where people can submit themselves to reason [Spinoza] |
19871 | Freedom is not absence of laws, but living under laws arrived at by consent [Locke] |
5621 | The existence of reason depends on the freedom of citizens to agree, doubt and veto ideas [Kant] |
22085 | Freedom requires us to submit to a family, or a corporation, or a state [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
23818 | We have liberty in the space between nature and accepted authority [Weil] |
21017 | Political freedom is an incoherent project, because some freedoms limit other freedoms [Nussbaum] |
18661 | Ancient freedom was free participation in politics, not private independence of life [Kymlicka] |