Spinoza, Benedictus de | Jonathan Bennett (essay date 1984)
Jonathan Bennett (essay date 1984)
SOURCE: “A Character Sketch of the Ethics” and “The Cast of Spinoza's Mind,” in A Study of Spinoza's Ethics, Hackett Publishing Company, 1984, pp. 7-54.
[In the following essay, Bennett outlines the central theses of the Ethics and positions them in their historical context.]
CHAPTER ONE: A CHARACTER SKETCH OF THE ETHICS
The central topic of this book is Spinoza's one indisputable masterpiece, the Ethics. In my first chapter I shall say what sort of work the Ethics is, what sort Spinoza took it to be, how it relates to the rest of his work, and in what spirit I intend to approach it.
§1. THE PLACE OF THE ETHICS IN SPINOZA'S CORPUS
1. Setting aside Spinoza's grammar of the Hebrew language and his two works on politics, which I do not find helpful in understanding the Ethics, we are left with six substantial items. Four of these...
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