Spinoza’s statement "It is permissible by the highest natural right for everyone to do what he judges to be to his own advantage" emerges from a radically naturalistic approach to ethics and politics. It’s not a moral permission slip. It’s an ontological fact.
Natural Right is not Moral Right
In Spinoza, natural right (jus naturale) is not a moral rule. It is simply the power each thing has to exist and act according to its nature (conatus). A stone has a “right” to fall. A wolf has a “right” to hunt.
A human has a “right” to seek advantage because everything in nature strives to persist and increase its power. There's no moral ought here. It's a statement of how being is.
Judgment of Advantage Is Relative and Built-In
Humans judge what is advantageous based on what they believe contributes to their survival and flourishing. If someone steals bread, they’re following what seems advantageous in that moment, their powers, ideas, and fears operating in real time.
There is no absolute standard of good or evil. All so-called good acts, evil acts, kind acts, cruel acts are just expressions of a thing's power striving according to its nature and understanding.
There Is No Sin Against Nature
When a person acts for their advantage, even if they harm others, they are not violating nature. They are expressing it. Spinoza rejects the notion that you should seek the good of others instead of your own. But here’s the trick. Your real advantage is not always what it seems. If you live by superstition, fear, or irrational desire, you often sabotage your own conatus without knowing. Thus, to truly act in your advantage, you must understand the world clearly and act from adequate ideas not illusions or emotions.
Ethics as Power Optimization
Spinoza's ethics is not about obedience, guilt, or altruism.
It’s about maximizing your power to exist in harmony with reality. The virtuous person does not sacrifice themselves to others.
Nor does the destructive person win by dominating others. Both are, in fact, weak ruled by emotions.
Strength, for Spinoza, is when you act in ways that reinforce your own being alongside others not through domination, but through understanding.
When Spinoza says it's permissible “by the highest natural right” to act in your own perceived interest, he's saying that every being must act to preserve itself. No one can be forbidden by divine mandate to do so. Whether that action is wise or foolish depends on how clear your understanding is. In essence, you cannot not act in your perceived interest. The only question is whether your perception is adequate or delusional.
