Spinoza's theory of common belief : Ordinary and usual thigs in the tractus theologico-politicus

This paper discusses the “thoroughly ordinary and usual” nature Spinoza assigns to the essential teachings of the Bible. It refers to Spinoza's theory of perception, memory and affects in the Ethica as background, and concludes on his theory of common belief and its role in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. Common belief consists, not in the certainty founded on truth, but in the mere absence of doubt, which is ensured by mutual imitation of affects among people who beseech by “ambitio” to plead the imaginary desire of their common others. The Tractatus Theologico-Politicus bases its whole project on the common belief in the rightness of mentioning “justice and charity”, belief that is commonly presupposed even in the universal discordance in theologicopolitical matters.