Benedict Spinoza

A summary of Benedict Spinoza’s life story gives us a bit of an insight into the antecedent determinants of this philosopher’s personalit. I first discuss Spinozean metaphysics as documented in his Ethics. Spinoza’s delineation of his philosophy in a systematic and mathematical fashion employs the elements of axioms, theorems, definitions, proofs, corollaries, and scholia. He aspires to unravel truths about reality and he is confident that once we know these truths, we can guide our lives especially in the area of controlling our emotions so as to cultivate a peaceful state of mind. I then carefully examine Spinoza's substance monism. Next, I assess Spinoza’s identification of God with Nature or the Universe and his attempt to demonstrate the indivisibility of this infinite substance especially the corporeality of Nature via the method of reductio ad absurdum. At the end of the chapter I look at what free will means to him.