Unlike Kisner and Sharp, scholars such as Steven Smith and Yirmiyahu Yovel interpret Spinoza as prescribing a solitary life of contemplation; they suggest a connection between rationality and solitude and, thereby, a natural link between intellectual perfection and withdrawal from the social.

... آنها پیوندی بین عقلانیت و تنهایی می‌یابند و در نتیجه پیوندی طبیعی بین کمال فکری و کناره گیری از امر اجتماعی.