Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza
Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order (Latin:
Ethica, ordine geometrico demonstrata), usually known as the
Ethics , is a philosophical treatise written in Latin by Baruch Spinoza (Benedictus de Spinoza). It was written between 1661 and 1675 and was first published posthumously in 1677.
The book is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to apply the method of Euclid in philosophy. Spinoza puts forward a small number of definitions and axioms from which he attempts to derive hundreds of propositions and corollaries, such as ‘When the Mind imagines its own lack of power, it is saddened by it’, ‘A free man thinks of nothing less than of death’, and ‘The human Mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the Body, but something of it remains which is eternal.’
The first part of the book addresses the relationship between God and the universe. Spinoza was engaging with a Tradition that held: God exists outside of the universe; God created the universe for a reason; and God could have created a different universe according to his will. Spinoza denies each point. According to Spinoza, God
is the natural world.
Spinoza concludes the following: God is the substance comprising the universe, with God existing in itself, not somehow outside of the universe; and the universe exists as it does from necessity, not because of a divine theological reason or will.
Spinoza argues through propositions. He holds their conclusion is merely the necessary logical conclusion from combining the provided Definitions and Axioms. He starts with the proposition that ‘there cannot exist in the universe two or more substances having the same nature or attribute.
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