dulce, que la libertad, he creído hacer una buena obra, y de alguna utilidad, tal vez, enseñando que la libertad de pensar, no tan sólo puede concili… - Benedictus de Spinoza

Ultimately there are but three systems of ethics, three conceptions of the ideal character and the moral life. One is that of Buddha and Jesus, which stresses the feminine virtues, considers all men to be equally precious, resists evil only by returning good, identifies virtue with love, and inclines in politics to unlimited democracy. Another is the ethic of Machiavelli and Nietzsche, which stresses the masculine virtues, accepts the inequality of men, relishes the risks of combat and conquest and rule, identifies virtue with power, and exalts an hereditary aristocracy. A third, the ethic of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, denies the universal applicability of either the feminine or the masculine virtues; considers that only the informed and mature mind can judge, according to diverse circumstance, when love should rule, and when power; identifies virtue, therefore, with intelligence; and advocates a varying mixture of aristocracy and democracy in government. It is the distinction of Spinoza that his ethic unconsciously reconciles these apparently hostile philosophies, weaves them into a harmonious unity, and gives us in consequence a system of morals which is the supreme achievement of modern thought.

en el apartado sobre la «Intención», las claves que enmarcan el tema son las siguientes: el ser humano teme la soledad y es político por naturaleza (TP 6/1), como ya sentó la tradición, luego puede decirse que la sociedad es algo también natural (TP 4/4). Y de ahí surge una cesión de la fuerza que cada uno tiene por naturaleza a las instituciones (no a alguien en especial), mediante el pacto que instaura un orden civil y unos valores éticos.

I pass, at length, to the third and perfectly absolute dominion, which we call democracy.