Ethics

Ethics was written in Latin by Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) and published posthumously in 1677. Structured with almost mathematical logic, the Ethics outlines Spinoza’s view of God as an infinite being who is the source of all that exists, then examines the structure of the human mind and human desires and passions. Later in the book, Spinoza considers how man can master his passions and achieve happiness and true freedom by contemplating truth, which is embodied in God.

Sometimes known by his Latinized name Benedict or Benedictus, Spinoza was one of the most important philosophers of the 17th century. Born into a Jewish family in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Spinoza worked as a lens crafter and wrote his philosophical works on the side. Spinoza’s theories about God, nature, and ethics often differed from traditional Judeo-Christian religious doctrine. As a result, he repeatedly found himself at the center of controversy for his views. He was excommunicated from the Jewish community at age 23, and many of his works were published anonymously or under pseudonyms. Spinoza’s thought influenced both the Romantic movement and modern philosophy, with its emphasis on skepticism, natural processes, and the power of human reason. The Ethics is considered his most influential work.

This guide refers to the Penguin Classics edition of the text.

Summary

In Part 1 Spinoza posits that God is a perfect, all-powerful, thinking being who is the cause of his own existence and causes all other things to be. Everything caused by God follows necessarily from his nature; things could not be any other way. God is identified with nature, or the way things are. All things, including human beings, are modes or affects of God. In this way, God pervades all things that exist.

Part 2 considers the human mind in light of this view of God. In a sense, the human mind is contained within the mind of God. Our thoughts, feelings, and actions are predetermined by the order of nature that originates in God’s mind. Our greatest capacity is to think and know, and there are three kinds of knowledge: that which comes from sense experience, that which comes from reasoning, and that which comes from intuition, based in the simple truth of things as they exist in God’s nature. Unlike God, humans are finite beings, yet because we originate in God, there is a part of us that is eternal.

The texts then shifts away from abstraction and takes a more instructive tone. Part 3 examines human emotion, and Spinoza begins this survey by emphasizing that humans are part of nature, not above or in control of it. This is apparent because human beings perform actions and have experiences that are outside our control. Spinoza calls these latter experiences passions or emotions and includes a survey of several such emotions, such as joy and sadness.

In Part 4 Spinoza explains how passions create unhappiness because we are being controlled by things we do not understand. Our happiness therefore depends on increasing our knowledge of the things around us, thus gaining more power to control our own lives. It is an unavoidable fact that we are motivated by appetite and the instinct to survive. In light of that, Part 5 articulates how we can attain happiness: By pursuing our self-interest in an enlightened way, we can make ourselves and those around us happy. The greatest happiness is knowing and loving God and acting virtuously, which is its own reward.