Spinoza´s Book of Life

Most readers of Spinoza treat him as a pure metaphysician, a grim determinist or a stoic moralist, but none of these descriptions captures the author of the Ethics, argues Steven Smith in this book. Offering a new reading of Spinoza´s masterpiece, Smith asserts that the Ethics is a celebration of human freedom and its attendant joys and responsibilities and should be placed among the great founding documents of the Enlightenment.Smith´s book treats the famous "geometrical method" of the Ethics as a form of moral rhetoric, a model for the construction of individuality. It also presents the "Ethics" as a companion to Spinoza´s major work of political philosophy, the "Theologico-Political Treatise", each work helping to explore the problem of freedom. Affirming Spinoza´s centrality for both critics and defenders of modernity, the book should be of value to students of political theory, philosophy and intellectual history.