SOURCE: “A Character Sketch of the Ethics” and “The Cast of Spinoza's Mind,” in A Study of Spinoza's Ethics, Hackett Publishing Company, 1984, pp. 7-54.

In the following essay, Bennett outlines the central theses of the Ethics and positions them in their historical context.

Chapter One: a Character Sketch of the Ethics

The central topic of this book is Spinoza's one indisputable masterpiece, the Ethics. In my first chapter I shall say what sort of work the Ethics is, what sort Spinoza took it to be, how it relates to the rest of his work, and in what spirit I intend to approach it.

§1. the Place of the Ethics in Spinoza's Corpus

1. Setting aside Spinoza's grammar of the Hebrew language and his two works on politics, which I do not find helpful in understanding the Ethics, we are left with six substantial items. Four of these were finished or...