Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself.”
Baruch Spinoza · Rationalism · Early modern · 1677
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the last proposition as a rejection of moral bookkeeping: one does not act well in order to be paid with blessedness later, because blessedness is the activity of virtue already, the mind's intellectual love. A rival reading hears a denial that virtue has any good consequences, which he does not say. He says the reward is not external to the act. Proposition 42 closes the Ethics, after the account of the mind's eternity and of freedom as understanding.
Did Baruch Spinoza really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Edwin Curley's translation of Ethics, part five, proposition 42, the last proposition. Blessedness is the activity of virtue, not a prize paid afterwards. This wording is a translation.
Where it comes from
Ethics V, proposition 42
Approximate date: 1677.
How to use it
A volunteer rota at a food bank in Wolverhampton, endured only for a line on an application, is not yet the blessedness he means, even if the rota helps someone eat. He is not sneering at the help. He is separating an external wage from an activity that is itself the good; The application line can still be a motive; It is a different kind of motive from the one the proposition calls virtue.
A mindset reading
The sentence is easy to misuse as a ban on caring whether things turn out well. He thinks understanding changes what a life can do, and those changes matter. What he refuses is a virtue that is only a coin for a later prize, including a prize conceived as payment in another life; If the activity is not itself the good, the book has not described blessedness.
Understand the philosophy
The key term is blessedness, identified with virtue and with the intellectual love of God rather than with a subsequent reward. Proposition 42 is the last of the Ethics, and its note sends the reader back to how difficult the path is. Curley's English keeps the negation sharp. Part five has argued that something of the mind is eternal in a specific, non-biographical sense; This proposition says what the good of that path is.
- virtue
- happiness
- ethics
FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the last proposition as a rejection of moral bookkeeping: one does not act well in order to be paid with blessedness later, because blessedness is the activity of virtue already, the mind's intellectual love. A rival reading hears a denial that virtue has any good consequences, which he does not say. He says the reward is not external to the act. Proposition 42 closes the Ethics, after the account of the mind's eternity and of freedom as understanding.
Did Baruch Spinoza really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Edwin Curley's translation of Ethics, part five, proposition 42, the last proposition. Blessedness is the activity of virtue, not a prize paid afterwards. This wording is a translation.
Which work is it in?
Ethics V, proposition 42 Approximate date: 1677.