Table of Contents

IntroductionISpinoza's Life and PhilosophyIIBibliographical NoteIIIAbbreviations and Other ConventionsPreliminariesIA Portrait of the Philosopher as a Young Man3IIA Critique of Traditional Religion6IIIFragments of a Theory of Scientific Method48IVFrom a Non-Geometric Draft of the Ethics55VAn Early Attempt at Geometrizing Philosophy66VITwo Criticisms of Descartes71VIIThe Study Group has Questions about Definitions77VIIIThe Worm in the Blood82The EthicsIOf God85IIOf the Nature and Origin of the Mind115IIIOf the Origin and Nature of the Affects152IVOf Human Bondage, or the Powers of the Affects197VOf the Power of the Intellect, or on Human Freedom244Objections and RepliesITschirnhaus on Freedom266IIFreedom and Necessity267IIITschirnhaus on Problems about the Attributes and Infinite Modes269IVOn Knowledge of Other Attributes and Examples of Infinite Modes270VTschirnhaus on Knowledge of Other Attributes272VIEach Thing Is Expressed by Many Minds272VIITschirnhaus Presses His Objection273VIIISpinoza Replies Again273IXTschirnhaus on Deducing the Existence of Bodies274XOn the Uselessness of Descartes' Principles of Natural Things274XITschirnhaus Presses the Objection274XIISpinoza's Last Reply275Index277

About the Author

Edwin Curley, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the author of Behind the Geometrical Method: A Reading of Spinoza's "Ethics" (Princeton) and editor and translator of Princeton's edition of the works of Spinoza.