Ambition

Spinoza writes that “human nature is so constituted that each of us wants the others to live according to his temperament” (E5p4s). This “striving to bring it about that everyone should approve his love or hate” (E3p31s) is central to our psychological makeup, yet manifests itself in different ways: “in a man who is not led by reason this appetite is the passion called ambition [ambitio], which does not differ much from pride. On the other hand, in a man who lives according to the dictate of reason it is the action, or virtue, called Morality” (E5p4s). The Spinozistic sage who seeks virtue and strives to have others love the same thing, presents himself as a desirable image of love to others (E4app25). The ambitious man, however, desires “admiration” (E4app25), and this, as Spinoza’s definition of pride suggests, out of “self-love” (E3DA28). Spinoza thus treats the desire for recognition as a pervasive feature of human psychology (see also TTP6[22] & TP6[3]), yet distinguishes between a constructive and immoderate manifestation of this striving.