Like Socrates, Spinoza sees good and evil in terms of knowledge and ignorance. Knowledge is liberating because the more we know about ourselves and about the human condition, the more we are able to recognize that we love or hate or find joy or feel pain as the result, not of free choice, but of chance and history and accidental association and past conditioning. Once we realize that, we can stop blaming others for their actions, for these are absolutely determined. We can stop blaming ourselves, too, for our actions are also equally determined. Hate, envy and guilt vanish.
