This article examines Spinoza’s notion of “imitation of the affects” from the perspective of its epistemological, anthropological and ethico-political ambiguities. The article proposes to make sense of these ambiguities on the basis of the more general development of Spinoza’s thought to which the Ethics, when read from a genetic point of view, bears witness, and of which the introduction of “imitation” is one aspect.
Keywords: Spinoza, Imitation, Conatus, Imagination, Virtue.