“A free person thinks of death least of all things, and their wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
deathfreedommeaning
Paraphrase or translation
Philosopher
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Baruch Spinoza
1632–1677 · Rationalism · Early modern
Baruch Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in 1632, in the Portuguese Jewish community, and was expelled from the synagogue in 1656. He made a living grinding lenses and died in 1677. The Ethics, published just after his death, is written in Latin like geometry: definitions, axioms, propositions, and scholia. There is one substance, God or nature.
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Whatever is, is in God. The order of ideas is the order of things. Human actions are to be studied as lines and planes are studied. Each thing strives to persevere. People think themselves free because they feel their appetites and miss the causes. Virtue is power to seek one's own advantage, rightly understood, and blessedness is that virtue, not a later reward.
Something of the mind is eternal, and the claim is not a personal afterlife. Edwin Curley's translation is the English this library follows. A two-word equation, God or nature, is the most dangerous quotation in the book, because it is exact and almost never self-explanatory.
Start here
Ethics, part 1 appendix, then part 3 preface and propositions 6 to 9, in Curley
The appendix is continuous prose on the prejudice of freedom. The opening of part 3 shows the method and the striving on which the ethics runs.
Quotations
“God, or Nature.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
meaningknowledge
Paraphrase or translation
“Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can be or be conceived without God.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
meaningknowledgemind
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“The order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
mindknowledge
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“I shall consider human actions and appetites just as if it were a question of lines, planes, and bodies.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
ethicsmindknowledge
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“Each thing, as far as it can by its own power, strives to persevere in its being.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
selfethicsmind
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“Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
virtuehappinessethics
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“People think themselves free, because they are conscious of their volitions and their appetite, and do not think of the causes by which they are determined.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
freedommindknowledge
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“The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the body, but something of it remains which is eternal.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
deathmindmeaning
Paraphrase or translation
“The more each one strives, and is able, to seek his own advantage, the more he is endowed with virtue.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism
virtueethicsself
Paraphrase or translation
Key ideas
One substance
Whatever is, is in God, and God is nature, not a person outside the world issuing decrees.
Striving
Each thing strives to persevere, and human virtue is power to seek one's own advantage under that striving.
Freedom as understanding
People feel free because causes are hidden, and real freedom is acting from adequate ideas, not being uncaused.
Blessedness
Blessedness is virtue itself, the intellectual love of God, not a wage paid after the act.
Major works
Ethics (completed by 1675, published 1677)
The geometrical system. Curley's English is the translation used here.
Theological-Political Treatise (1670)
On scripture, prophecy, and the freedom of philosophy in a republic.
Political Treatise (unfinished, 1677)
A late politics, more hard-headed still, and incomplete at his death.
Influences
Influenced
Common misreadings
- God or nature means the outdoors, or a cosmic friend.
- Something of the mind remains eternal means the person continues with their biography.
Famous lines Baruch Spinoza never said
None of the lines this library files for Baruch Spinoza is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
Ethics, part 1 appendix, then part 3 preface and propositions 6 to 9, in Curley The appendix is continuous prose on the prejudice of freedom. The opening of part 3 shows the method and the striving on which the ethics runs.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Baruch Spinoza that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “A free person thinks of death least of all things, and their wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life.” (Ethics, part IV, proposition 67, Paraphrase or translation).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for Baruch Spinoza is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
One substance: Whatever is, is in God, and God is nature, not a person outside the world issuing decrees.