Considering the Object of Intuition in Spinoza’s Philosophy

Baruch Spinoza, the rationalist philosopher of the seventeenth century, devoted special attention to knowledge and epistemology. In his philosophy, knowledge has types and classes, the most valid of which is intuitive knowledge, and from this point of view, he focused on intuition, its objects, and its features. This paper, studying the types of cognition in Spinoza’s thought, attempts to explain its meaning and the object. Furthermore, the article, based on two sorts of interpretations, shows that, in the development of Spinoza’s philosophy, the object of intuition changes. This variation is caused by passing Spinoza’s thought from the division of knowledge, based on the form in the TRE, to that division, based on content in Ethics and there are serious debates among interpreters about that. In both works, Spinoza’s intuition is inferential, immediate, and irregular. Although, in TRE, its object is attribute and mode, while in Ethics, it is only mode or the essence of a particular thing. Finally, we show that the realization of intuitive knowledge guarantees credible and efficient knowledge and leads to liberty and happiness as the main purpose of Spinoza's philosophy.