%A Michael Slote %T From Virtue to Freedom through Emotion %0 Journal Article %D 2015 %J Front. Philos. China %J Frontiers of Philosophy in China %@ 1673-3436 %R 10.3868/s030-004-015-0032-8 %P 430-443 %V 10 %N 3 %U {https://academic.hep.com.cn/fpc/EN/10.3868/s030-004-015-0032-8 %8 2015-09-15 %X

Spinoza conceived human freedom as a matter solely of rationality, but an understanding of the role emotion plays in moral virtue can lead one toward viewing emotionality as also essential to human freedom. A large part of human freedom consists in our tendency to give intrinsic importance to people or things outside ourselves and take them into our lives; this sense of importance, in rich and various ways, brings emotion into the center of our lives and our freedom as individuals.