I titled this post "Of Human Bondage" because I like the literary allusion. The short passage below starts Part IV of The Ethics. Spinoza has taken almost all of Part III to set up the idea, common in Plato and Paul (Romans 7:19) that without effort (rational for Plato, spiritual for Paul) we are in thrall to our emotions. Spinoza does come at the emotion/rational dichotomy a little differently that Plato does. Throughout Part III, he sets up a picture of the emotions as passive because they are in response to external stimuli, and thus enslave us.
"Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I
name bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is
not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much
so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better
for him, to follow that which is worse."
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