Spinoza on positive freedom

Much of the liberal tradition in political through has shared Isaiah Berlin's fears about al1 positive concepts orIiherty. Indeed these fears seemjustified in relation to Marx and HegeL However. the danger of a tyrannical paternalism derives not from the concept of positive freedom itself but from the reification of the self associated with rationalism. Spinoza' s monism and his notion of individual conalus make any rationalist reification of the self implausible. Consequcntly his account of positive freedom enriches rather than undermines the commitment to negative liberty. whilst also helping to explain his ability to reconcile liberal toleration with the strikingly Hobbesian premisses ofhis political philosophy.