Translated by Dr. A. Wolf from the Dutch [version of the author’s Tractatus de Deo et homine] and edited and with an introduction by Dagobert D. Runes. Spinoza is today considered the Philosopher of Modern Times, as Aristotle was the Philosopher of Antiquity. In spite of which, he remains the best known and least read of the great thinkers. The Book of God, one of his earliest works, came to light only a hundred years ago in two slightly varying Dutch manuscripts. Its youthful author lived in turbulent times, when the Western world was torn by civil and religious strife, and bullies, bigots and pseudo-prophets vied for the ear of a fearful people. While Europe was in an uproar over the right church, Spinoza was seeking the right God. This book is the first known report of his findings. Appearing like a draft for his later Ethics, it is a Guide for the Bewildered. Those who see in philosophy no more than an intellectual exercise will have no difficulty dismissing it. But those imbued with the longing for a better and freer life will find here a most rewarding fountain of faith.
Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher, one of the great rationalists and philosophers of the 17th century within the so-called Modern Philosophy, alongside René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. Spinoza believed that God was the mechanism that moved the Universe, and that the biblical texts were nothing more than symbols that dispense with any rational approach. According to his view, the texts contained therein do not translate the reality that involves the Creator and his creation. In the Protestant society that dominated the Netherlands, there was no room for such heretical thinking; therefore, the Jewish leaders, received with clemency by these religious figures, could not tolerate an attitude that went against the very foundations of Christianity. Spinoza was accused of blasphemy and expelled from the Synagogue of Amsterdam, being disinherited by his family. The book " Ethics – Demonstrated in the Geometrical Manner," completed in 1675, is his masterpiece and has influenced, and continues to influence, the thinking of numerous great philosophers.
The Philosophy of Spinoza - Special Edition contains the restored full length essays "On God," "On Man," and "On Man's Well Being" as well as an introduction and a biography of Spinoza.
The only complete edition in English of Baruch Spinoza's works, this volume features Samuel Shirley’s preeminent translations, distinguished at once by the lucidity and fluency with which they convey the flavor and meaning of Spinoza’s original texts. Michael L. Morgan provides a general introduction that places Spinoza in Western philosophy and culture and sketches the philosophical, scientific, religious, moral and political dimensions of Spinoza’s thought. Morgan’s brief introductions to each work give a succinct historical, biographical, and philosophical overview. A chronology and index are included.
This Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect etc., which we give you here, kind reader, in its unfinished, that is, defective state, was written by the author many years ago now. He always intended to finish it. But hindered by other occupations, and finally snatched away by death, he was unable to bring it to the desired conclusion. But since it contains many excellent and useful things, which - we have no doubt - will be of great benefit to anyone sincerely seeking the truth, we did not wish to deprive you of them. And so that you would be aware of, and find less difficult to excuse, the many things that are still obscure, rough, and unpolished, we wished to warn you of them. Farewell.
Samuel Shirley's splendid new translation, with critical annotation reflecting research of the last half-century, is the only edition of the complete text of Spinoza's correspondence available in English. An historical-philosophical Introduction, detailed annotation, a chronology, and a bibliography are also included.
Designed to facilitate a thoughtful and informed reading of Spinoza's Ethics, this anthology provides the Ethics, related writings, and two valuable appendices: List of Propositions from the Ethics, which helps readers to trace the development of key themes; and Citations in Proofs, a list of all the propositions, corollaries, and scholia in the Ethics, together with all the definitions, axioms, propositions, corollaries, and scholia to which Spinoza refers in the proofs--thus, readers can locate, for a given item, each instance where Spinoza refers to it.
The seventeenth century Dutch philosopher views the ability to experience rational love of God as the key to mastering the contradictory and violent human emotions.
Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order(or simply Ethics) is a philosophical treatise originally written in Latin by Baruch de Spinoza. It was written between 1661 to 1675, only being published after his death in 1677. As an application of Euclid's method used in The Elements, the book is an exercise in a logic from defining the nature of God and the relations of God with the universe, through the human mind and body, the underlying striving towards the ever-lasting of being, the human passions, to the aid of reason as a form of liberation from the mediated "sad passions" of humans in their place in the natural order, towards the path of attainable happiness. Ethics centers around a particular metaphysical proposition, of God, or Nature, (Deus sive Natura) as the only true substance, and all which we experience are only particular modulations experienced in extension (matter) or thought(mind). From this metaphysical pinpoint, it can be understood that the entirety of extension and thought comprise of the entire system of the universe, and through the entirety of processing the mind is the Absolutely Infinite Understanding. In the logical deduction of Being, in clarifying Nature, Spinoza believes that the process of reasoning and philosophy can shed us of our confusions, and propel us towards perceiving ourselves from the perfection of God/Nature. Through this process of a kind of immanent becoming through philosophy, Spinoza believes that our peace and unity with the Divine is one(or perhaps won, depending upon how you will read this book) in "True Blessedness".
With meticulous scholarship and an accurate, highly readable translation, this volume sheds light not only on Spinoza's debt to Descartes but also on the development of Spinoza's own thought. Appearing for the first time in English translation, Lodewijk Meyer's inaugural dissertation on matter (1683)--relevant for its comments on Descartes, Spinoza, and other thinkers of the time--is appended with notes and a short commentary. Cross-references to Descartes's Principles of Philosophy are provided in an index, and there is an extensive bibliography.
L'Ethique de Spinoza, parue posthume en 1677, ouvre la philosophie moderne. Elle se dresse avec " la fermeté d'un temple dans un paysage inhabité ". Son unité géométrique heurte le morcellement du monde contemporain, mais elle accompagne tous ceux qui s'aventurent sur la voie du " bien agir ". Elle fonde notre être pour le monde. S'est imposée alors une traduction nouvelle, restituant la rigueur lexicale et l'élégance du style. Un important appareil critique justifie les choix terminologiques et commente pas à pas l'ordre des propositions, des définitions et des axiomes. Ainsi redécouverte en sa lettre même, l'Ethique indique à nouveau le chemin d'une vie vertueuse qui serait sa propre récompense et sa joie véritable. En ces temps incertain, elle guide les égarés.
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