The problem of liberal freedom

An amendment to Rawls from Spinoza

Abstract

The objective of this article is to try to offer a response from a reinterpretation of Baruch Spinoza's political philosophy to the problems that the Rawlsian theory of freedom combines without, however, renouncing its strong points. These problems can be identified if we combine both the communitarian and republican critiques of Rawls: his theory of what constitutes freedom is too narrow in not taking into account the social and cultural conditions in which people are formed as human subjects. At the same time, we cannot ignore the liberal counter-reply to the communitarian critique: a certain way of life cannot be imposed on people under the presumption that this is the best possible way of life, letting each one decide for himself, same, what is the way of life that will bring you the greatest happiness.