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Ethics

By Benedict de Spinoza

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Among philosophers, Spinoza is best known for his Ethics, a monumental work that presents an ethical vision unfolding out of a monistic metaphysics in which God and Nature are identified. God is no longer the transcendent creator of the universe who rules it via providence, but Nature itself, understood as an infinite, necessary, and fully deterministic system of which humans are a part. Freemasonry too identifies Deity in Nature and urges human beings to examine the Natural world and derive their morality from its fundamental laws. Spinoza has remained an enormously controversial figure a for many, he is the harbinger of enlightened modernity who calls us to live by the guidance of reason while for others, he is the enemy of the traditions that sustain us and the denier of what is noble within us. 

Title Page
Part I. Concerning God
Part II. On the Nature and Origin of the Mind
Part III. On the Origin and Nature of the Emotions
Part IV. Of Human Bondage, or the Strength of the Emotions
V. Of the Power of the Understanding, or of Human Freedom
Notes