IndieAgora

Spinoza speaks of relationships as being about what combines or repels our essence. We act most actively when the essence of others combines or nourishes our essence and act most passively and with sadness when we ingest the poisonous essences of others.

He uses the analogy of food, an apple, one ripe, the other rotten.

This analogy sets up the means for Nietzsche and his theory of drives.

This is so good! Can you go more into detail about what an essence is and how it can be identified, what it is made of, what its origins are, whatever.

An essence is the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, that determines its character.

Spinoza opens the door for Nietzsche here as he frames it in a social context and when Nietzsche links Spinoza with Darwin, we discard with essence as intrinsic, to a complex pattern of drives that are in conflict with each other and are defined through value in relations.