Ethics

De: Benedict de Spinoza

Narrado por: Antony Ferguson

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.

Public Domain (P)2011 Tantor

Very little about "ethics"

I thought "Ethics" was about ethics. I am 4 hours in, and Spinoza has so far spent most on logical puzzles and philosophy of science.

The Great independant Spinoza

I love his fearlessness.
I love his love of life.
I love his love for his family and humanity.
I love his opening of my mind.

Too much not, self evident

Interesting but fraught with all kinds of problems. I wasn't at all sure what his source for his understanding of the nature of God. It seemed overall that the system worked within itself, but on what premise was the whole thing based? On the nature of Man, well, so much has been contradicted by research on the brain, that it was hard to tell, of the remainder, what was actually useful. The structure was based on Euclid, which is great for a subject like Geometry which has so little room for doubt and error, but man is not as clear a subject. I was also quite frustrated that so many things were "self evident" or any other possibility could be written off as ridiculous. In those moments, it felt like a real discussion of why he considered it self evident was required even more. Wouldn't bother taking this on again. Once was enough.

powerful.

i love the entire concept of this book. the author was ahead of his time; very much relevant to modern times and beyond.

A guide to controlling your own humanity

The capability that Espinoza has to explain concepts like our own existence, our understanding of God, our emotions, the power of a knowledgeable man. Everyone needs to hear about this, this is the importance of philosophy.

Interesting

Loved it. Going to listen again…and again etc …deep. So if you like deep…

I probably need to read commentary alongside the text

I got lost within two minutes. within 5 minutes it felt like absolute gibberish. I advise reading text rather than audiobook as this is not something to let wash over you. Opposite of Descartes in that Descartes attempts to prove something simpler and build up to proving God, Spinoza attempts to prove God and works down. Using Euclidean geometry to prove God exists is a hot take; 'Triangles either exist or not, squares are not circle, therefore God necessarily exists' massive oversimplification, but basically what is said.
Book is divided in five parts, each part builds off previous. I could follow last three parts and only felt confident with last part.

One of the best books on ethics, god,

Spinoza is a genius and this book is his masterpiece. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in enlightenment philosophy. Spinoza’s unique conception of god as being leads him to layout an ethics derived from reason which formatted as a series of geometrical proofs. Most early modern authors are dry and difficult but I found Spinoza Ethics to be engaging and easily understandable.

Wonderful!

Spinoza shares an enlightened map of how any thinking being can find an acceptable and shared ground with any other thinking being.

Listen book is a blessing

I tried to read this book and failed. The listen book was a blessing.

The structure of propositions and definitions was impenetrable in the beginning. Though my way of thinking is almost mathematical, I was still completely bored after reading chapter 1. However, once I listened to the complete text, I understood what Spinoza wanted to share and it made his structure incredibly logical. His is amazingly brief, hardly a word too much. It invited me to read the book (first time while simultaneously listening to it), make my own notes and now it is one of my favourite books.

As Shiatsu student, I was pleased to read that in the 'west', there was a similar view on 'god' like in ancient oriental texts. I especially liked his point 'god is one substance with infinite attributes'. In Tao Te Ching you can find the same. When a division can be made, it cannot be one and hence not god. If I could ask him a question, I would like to know whether he had to call 'it' god due to society pressure or that he factually believed in a 'god'.
I was equally relieved that his view and Rene Descartes' view was not far of. In my opinion, the 'west' since the Enlightenment is in true essence non-dualistic. There is no believe in god as a white bearded man and factually no believe in a separate 'soul' that goes to heaven. There is unity with 'nature' or 'universe'; compare this with ancient Hindus, Buddhist and Chinese texts.

For me, the sections that deal with emotions are better than any modern self-help book. His 'contemplative virtue' rings a lot like views of modern philosophers like J. Krishnamurti ('who didn't read books'). I wonder whether he really didn't read Spinoza. Maybe this was a case of enlightened, intelligent people think alike. I agree with Spinoza's view: it's our desires, our pains and pleasures which determine our emotional well being. In the Yellow Emperor, a source book of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it states: emotional imbalance determines our health. Any self-book about o.a. stress management must come to the same conclusion, after many more words than Spinoza required. I already agreed with Marcus Aurelius that leading a virtuous life is best. Spinoza wrote it and lived it. I do understand why this book does not rank high on the modern best sellers list. The compact structure does not make easy read and you will not get easy accessible stories. However, it allows to think for yourself ... contemplation in action!

I agree with another reviewer; don't trust summaries of this book. Once you read/listened this book, you will wonder how much of his ideas is part of our present common sense and how many contemporary people built their view's on his view. My suggestion: Read it, digest it and find your own view.