Abstract

The idea of death in Spinoza’s philosophy. This paper focuses on two aspects of Spinoza’s account of death. On the one hand, it analyses the idea of death which can be object of scientific investigation. On the other hand, it considers the idea of death psychologically linked to our fear of death. Spinoza’s reductionist perspective over all natural phenomena includes death itself. Death is in fact a natural phenomenon which, in its real effects on our affective life, can be object of rational enquiry. However, the fear of one’s own death remains a constant challenge for any rational man. No positive meditation on death is possible. A free man is not free because he does not fear death; on the contrary, he does not fear death because he is free, that is to say that his mind thinks of something else.