Full Idea
In Spinoza, self-knowledge, and only self-knowledge, liberates.
Gist of Idea
Only self-knowledge can liberate us
Source
report of Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675]) by Alasdair MacIntyre - A Short History of Ethics Ch.10
Book Reference
MacIntyre,Alasdair: 'A Short History of Ethics' [Routledge 1967], p.144
A Reaction
Spinoza was a determinist, as far as ultimate inner freedom is concerned. The massive continental philosophers' effort of phenomenology and deconstruction seems to be premissed on this idea. Freedom seems to be their highest value.