Abstract

I argue that Spinoza turns to the body in order to show the path towards empowerment and liberation. Firstly, I highlight the importance of the turn to the body for Spinoza’s epistemology: we have inadequate knowledge because we misunderstand our body; adequate knowledge must begin with adequate understanding of our body. The focus on the body provides important strategic advantages in allowing us to avoid various moral and metaphysical illusions. Secondly, I submit that there are three ways Spinoza talks about the body. While all three give us important clues about how we should understand it, the first method of knowing the body is inadequate, whereas the third does not do enough to illuminate the dynamic nature of Spinoza’s notion of ‘power’.