The Philosophy of Spinoza

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About this book

The Philosophy of Spinoza, by Benedictus de Spinoza, is edited by Joseph Ratner. The preface says the object in taking the Ethics as much as possible out of the geometrical form was not to improve upon the author's text; it was to give the lay reader a text of Spinoza he would find pleasanter to read and easier to understand.

One of Spinoza's young friends, Simon de Vries, wanted to bequeath all of his estate to Spinoza before his early death, but Spinoza persuaded him not to deprive his own brother of his natural inheritance. Spinoza wanted to be independent and self-supporting but was not irrationally zealous about it. A line of reasoning says that the infinite intellect comprehends nothing but the attributes of God and His modes, and that God is one. Sorrow for the loss of anything good is diminished, the text says, if the person who has lost it considers that it could not by any possibility have been preserved.

About the author

Benedictus de Spinoza

Benedict de Spinoza (1632 to 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish descent, expelled from Amsterdam's Jewish community at twenty-three for his opinions. He ground optical lenses for a living, turned down a professorship to keep his independence, and died of a lung ailment at forty-four.