 These considerations have led some readers to take Spinoza to reject all general and abstract ideas as inadequate (e.g. Curley 1973; Savan 1958). Such readings have trouble explaining Spinoza’s own reliance on words that seem to refer to general concepts (such as mode, idea, body, etc.). In particular, many of Spinoza’s moral and socio-political doctrines – and so the whole enterprise of the Ethics (see 1.4) – seem to hinge on the validity of the general idea of “human nature”. Spinoza seems to believe that human beings share an essential nature, even if they realize it to different degrees, and hence also a common good. Here is a representative passage: