The Importance of a Political Community

Spinoza thinks of each of us as an extremely tiny and insignificant part of a huge natural causal scheme. The only way that we can really protect ourselves significantly is by doing this as a community, he says. Spinoza seems to talk about this in two different registers: ethics and politics. He talks about it as a project for a community of wise and virtuous people who understand the importance of learning to understand and who cooperate in order to do that.