Most of those who have written about the emotions [affectibus] and human conduct seem to be dealing not with natural phenomena that follow the common laws of Nature but with phenomena outside Nature.  They appear to go so far as to conceive man in Nature as a kingdom within a kingdom.  They believe that he disturbs rather than follows Nature’s order, and has absolute power over his actions, and is determined by no other source than himself.  Again, they assign the cause of human weakness and frailty not to the power of Nature in general, but to some defect in human nature, which they therefore bemoan, ridicule, despise, or, as is most frequently the case, abuse.

Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics, Part III