Ethics, Benedict de Spinoza
Ethics, Benedict de Spinoza
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
Club: $8.99

Ethics

Author: Benedict de Spinoza

Narrator: Antony Ferguson

Unabridged: 9 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/30/2011

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Benedict de Spinoza's Ethics, first published in 1677, constitutes a major systematic critique of the traditional and religious foundations of philosophical thought. In it, Spinoza follows a logical step-by-step format consisting of definitions, axioms, propositions, proofs, and corollaries to create a comprehensive inquiry into the truth about God, nature, and humans' place within the universe. From these broad metaphysical themes, Spinoza derives what he considered to be the highest principles of religion and society and lays out an ethical system in which reason is the supreme value. A seminal contribution to 17th-century rationalism, Spinoza's Ethics refutes the dualism of René Descartes and provides a bridge between religion and modern-day psychology. This edition is the translation by R. H. M. Elwes.

About Benedict de Spinoza

Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677) was a Dutch philosopher who came to be known as one of the great rationalists of the 17th-century. Born into a Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam, Spinoza was excommunicated from this society at age 23. His most famous work, Ethics, was published posthumously; he is also the author of the Theological-Political Treatise, published in 1670. Spinoza's work laid the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, and has influenced such wide-ranging later thinkers as George Eliot, Freidrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, and Albert Einstein.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Beauregard on July 31, 2016

The best way to read this book is to listen to it. If I were to have read it, I would have dwelled excessively on the axioms, definitions and propositions and would have missed the forest for the trees. Don't worry if you don't get the definition as he gives them. You'll be able to pick them up when......more

Goodreads review by Jon on September 26, 2024

Another book that I am sure I was not able to fully understand; but - "Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow." Taken from that perspective I am glad to have encountered the writings of this great philosopher. A definite '2nd' read is in order; hoping the the cumulative effect......more