Abstract

This article focuses on Spinoza’s conception of philosophy. Based on what is stated on On the Improvement of the Understanding and the Theologico-Political Treatise, we propose that Spinoza does not consider philosophy as an already possessed knowledge, but as the pursuit of truth, closely linked to the pursuit of happiness. Philosophy is, according to this conception, a practice that involves the process by which human beings become free of prejudices and errors that prevent them from apprehending truth, and that hinder their thought and their action. This path of self emancipation of error is, according to our proposal, the authentic spirit of philosophy according to Spinoza, what, as we will show, is explicitly expressed in certain passages of his Ethics.