Spinoza claims that what seem strange, absurd or bad to us in nature do so since we cannot grasp the elements and their organizing principles in its entirety (Spinoza, 2018: 409). Therefore, it can be considered that the point of departure for Spinoza’s political theory is similar to that of Hobbes. They

both claim the following propositions to be the basics of their political thoughts:

1. Men are conditioned by the nature in such a way that they realize their own benefits.
2. Political order or the state, although it limits men, is based on rationality.

Like Machiavelli, Spinoza sought to understand relations of political power practically, scientifically, and dispassionately. Like Hobbes, he held that citizens are well-advised to give up their right and power to the state in return for the protection that it can provide to them in their pursuit of selfpreservation.

Unlike Hobbes, however, Spinoza emphasized the breadth of the practical limitations on the individual’s concession of power to the state; and also, unlike Hobbes, he located a human being’s highest advantage not in mere continued life and the pursuit of pleasure, but in the achievement

of adequate knowledge and its resulting peace of mind (Garret, 1995: 8). In Spinoza’s thought, the theoretical privilege of democracy is expressed through the closely interlinked usage of the concepts of the social covenant and of reason.