Spinoza Author:Stuart Hampshire Spinoza is probably the most difficult of all the great philosophers to understand at first reading and without some general Introduction to his methods and purposes. He is also supremely worth understanding, as one of the greatest of the metaphysicians who have tried to construct a coherent account of the universe and of man's place within it.... more » His system embraces the whole range of the traditional problems of philosophy including the problems of a creator and his creation, the relation of mind and body, the freedom of the will, the nature and limits of human knowledge, and also the problems of moral and political philosophy; all the main themes of philosophical speculation can found in his work. This book is designed as a general introduction which explains the connexions between the various aspects of Spinoza's philosophy, between his logic and his metaphysics, and again between his metaphysics and his moral and political doctrines.
"The book is a model of its kind.... Mr. Hmapshire's critical summary of the system is admirable: it is full, clear -- or at least as clear as the subject allows -- agreeable written, wastes no words and shirks no difficulties." -- TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT« less