Also includes The Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being, and Hebrew Grammar. Michael Morgan provides a general Introduction that places Spinoza in Western philosophy and culture, and sketches the philosophical, scientific, and religious moral and political dimensions of Spinoza's thought. Brief introductions to each work give succinct historical and philosophical overviews. A bibliography and index are also included.

    Following a logical step-by-step format, it defines in turn the nature of God, the mind, the emotions, human bondage to the emotions, and the power of understanding - moving from a consideration of the eternal, to speculate upon humanity's place in the natural order, the nature of freedom and the path to attainable happiness. A powerful work of elegant simplicity, the Ethics is a brilliantly insightful consideration of the possibility of redemption through intense thought and philosophical reflection. The Ethics is presented in the standard translation of the work by Edwin Curley. This edition also includes an introduction by Stuart Hampshire, outlining Spinoza's philosophy and placing it in context.

    His philosophy is marked by the most thoroughgoing naturalism of its period. Many of its central tenets remain matters of debate. His commitment to the search for a comprehensive understanding of everything inspired, among others, Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, Einstein, and Althusser. The Radical Enlightenment has been laid largely at his feet. Recent discoveries in the neurosciences suggest his biological understanding of the emotions may have been correct. It was upon this prescient naturalistic scientific foundation that he developed a new approach to ethics. Yet the last words in the Ethics sound a note of caution, even of warning: "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare." Time is finally catching up with him. The study of his philosophy is worth the effort, capturing contemporary scientific imagination & ethical sensibility.A. On the Improvement of the Understanding B. Ethics 1. On God 2. On the Nature & Origin of the Mind 3. On the Origin & Nature of the Emotions 4. Of Human Bondage; or Of the Strength of the Emotions 5. Of the Power of the Intellect; or Of Human Freedom

    The authorship of the book is uncertain. According to Adam McLean, a renowned authority and scholar of alchemical manuscripts and illustrations, "authorship is assigned to an anonymous figure named 'Altus'-'the high, deep and profound one'."The book consists of a series of 15 enigmatic illustrations depicting the work of alchemists. The book appears to illustrate the nature of the Great Work in a series of step by step instructions.