Joie
laetitia (latin scolastique)
For Spinoza, joy is neither a stable mood nor a "value." It is the soul’s passage from a lesser to a greater perfection—in other words, the crossing of a threshold of *power to act*. Joy is not possessed; it is traversed.
La Joie est le passage de l'homme d'une moindre à une plus grande perfection. La Tristesse est le passage de l'homme d'une plus grande à une moindre perfection.
The word that holds the entire structure together is passage. Spinoza himself pauses in the explanation following his definitions: “I say passage. For Joy is not perfection itself.” If we were born perfect, we would feel no joy—we would simply be perfect, without knowing it.
To be distinguished from beatitude (beatitudo), which in Spinoza’s thought refers not to a feeling but to knowledge of the third kind—a stationary state of the sage. Joy is dynamic; beatitude is attained.
Also to be distinguished from the Buddhist mudita (sympathetic joy in the happiness of others) and the New Testament Greek chara (evangelical joy tied to the expectation of the Kingdom). Three traditions, three distinct operations concealed beneath the same French word.