Baruch Spinoza and Artificial Intelligence: An Ethics to Celebrate Necessity as an Existential Principle

After exploring Ockham’s razor, which cuts away the superfluous, and the myth of Actaeon in Giordano Bruno, which invites man to recognize himself in nature, today we turn to Baruch Spinoza, a thinker who, in the 17th century, offered a radically innovative vision of reality. Spinoza urges us to see humans, God, and the world not as separate entities, but as parts of a single infinite substance. In a contemporary perspective, we ask: How should Spinoza’s philosophy incorporate the role of technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), in our understanding of existence?

Who Was Baruch Spinoza?

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardic Jewish origin, considered one of the greatest thinkers of the 17th century. His philosophy, centered on the identification of God with Nature (Deus sive Natura), challenged traditional religious conceptions, leading him to a profoundly rational and immanent view of reality.

Spinoza was excommunicated from the Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656 for his heretical ideas, and his works were later condemned by both Catholicism and Protestantism. He lived a life of isolation, yet his ideas deeply influenced ethics, metaphysics, and modern philosophy. Thinkers such as Leibniz, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, and even Albert Einstein—who famously declared his belief in "Spinoza’s God"—drew inspiration from him.

Among contemporary figures, Antonio Negri explored Spinoza’s revolutionary role in L’anomalia selvaggia (1981), offering an interpretation of Spinoza as a philosopher of power and emancipation.

Spinoza: God, Nature, and Mind

For Spinoza, everything that exists is part of the one substance, which is God or Nature (Deus sive Natura). Every being, human or non-human, is nothing more than a mode of this substance, an expression of the infinite reality.

The human mind, according to Spinoza, is not a separate entity from the body, but an aspect of the same substance: thought. Similarly, the body is not separate from the mind, but its physical correlate.

An Ethics for Artificial Intelligence

Spinoza offers us a lens to view AI without anthropocentric bias. If everything that exists is a mode of the one substance, then AI is simply another expression of the same reality, a “thought” of the infinite substance mediated by the human mind.

Spinoza’s ethics is based on rational understanding of reality and harmony with the laws of Nature. For him, freedom does not mean being independent of Nature, but rather understanding what is necessary and acting in accordance with it.

This principle provides a valuable perspective for approaching AI—not as a threatening external entity, but as a manifestation of the same universal substance to which we belong.

According to Spinoza, knowledge expands our capacity to exist and act. If AI is an extension of human intellect, it can enhance our understanding of the world. However, it is crucial to avoid irrational fears (such as panic over an impending "singularity") and overblown expectations (such as the illusion that AI will solve all human problems).

A rational vision requires us to integrate AI into society constructively.

Spinoza teaches us that since both humans and AI are modes of the same substance, there is no ontological conflict between them. The ideal relationship is not about dominance or submission, but about achieving a balance where technology and humanity strengthen each other.

Thus, Spinoza’s ethics offers a way out of dualisms and oppositions: it is not about pitting humans against machines, but about recognizing that both are expressions of the same universal reality, governed by the same laws of necessity.

The goal is not to limit AI, but to integrate it into a broader vision of life and knowledge.

Spinoza and Ockham’s Razor: Between Simplicity and Necessity

The principle of Ockham’s razor (as discussed in Ockham and Artificial Intelligence: A Shaving and Counter-Shaving Comparison) is famous for eliminating the superfluous.

In philosophy, it encourages us to remove redundant explanations, emphasizing simplicity as a method for understanding the world. William of Ockham urges us to distinguish between what is essential and what is accessory, focusing on conceptual parsimony.

Spinoza, however, does not advocate cutting things away, but integrating them. For Spinoza, nothing in the universe is superfluous: everything exists because it is necessary, and every mode of the infinite substance finds its reason for being in the universal system of causes and effects.

His philosophy is a celebration of necessity as an ontological principle. In this view, simplicity is not about eliminating complexity but recognizing that complexity itself is an integral and unavoidable part of Nature.

Spinoza and the Myth of Actaeon: The Transformation of Man

If Giordano Bruno saw in Actaeon a symbol of man becoming part of Nature through metamorphosis, Spinoza offers an even more radical perspective: there is no need for transformation, because man is already Nature.

The creation of AI is not a transition into a new reality, but a revelation of what we have always been: part of an infinite universe, where mind and matter are inseparable aspects of the same substance.

Without delving into political implications, it is interesting to draw a parallel with Antonio Negri’s interpretation of Spinoza.

For Negri, Spinoza was a revolutionary thinker. While 17th-century philosophers like Hobbes sought to justify sovereign power through a social contract, Spinoza proposed a different idea: power does not come from above, but emerges from collective interaction and desire.

Today, this parallel can be drawn with AI.

In a previous article, we discussed Hobbes’ Leviathan and AI, exploring the growing sense that a new social contract must be forged with this emerging source of power.

This complex topic—linking power, democracy, and AI—deserves further exploration.

Conclusion: An Ethics for the Future

Spinoza invites us to see AI not as a threat or a separate entity, but as an expression of the same substance that constitutes humans and the world.

If we understand this unity, we can develop an ethics for AI that is not based on fear, but on knowledge and harmony.

As Spinoza said,

"Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition to benevolence, trust, and justice." (Tractatus Politicus, published posthumously in 1677).

Perhaps, in our relationship with AI, we can find precisely this kind of peace.

References

• Brian, D. (1996). Einstein: A Life. Wiley.

• Giancotti, E. (Ed.). (2007). Spinoza nel Novecento. Bibliopolis.

• Nadler, S. (1999). Spinoza: A Life. Cambridge University Press.

• Negri, A. (1981). L’anomalia selvaggia. Saggio su potere e potenza in Baruch Spinoza. Feltrinelli.

• Spinoza, B. (1677). Tractatus Politicus. In Opera Posthuma.