The Ethics (eBook)

‘The Ethics’ is a philosophical book written by Benedictus de Spinoza. Although published after Spinoza's death, in 1677, it is considered his greatest and most famous work. In it, Spinoza tries to set out a "fully cohesive philosophical system that strives to provide a coherent picture of reality and to comprehend the meaning of ethical life. Following a logical step-by-step format, it defines in turn the nature of God, the mind, human bondage to emotions, and the power of understanding -- moving from a consideration of the eternal, to speculate upon humanity's place in the natural order, freedom, and the path to attainable happiness." The book is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to apply this 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 lack of power, it is saddened by it", "A free man thinks of nothing less than of death", and "The human Mind cannot be destroyed with the Body, but something of it remains which is eternal." The Euclidean style is larded with stretches of informal and at times pugnacious prose.

• Philosophy