Among the great thinkers of modern times, only Spinoza (1632-77) created a complete system of philosophy that rivals Plato''s. Few other thinkers have felt so strongly ''the desire to have a unitary view of the world and of man''s place within it'' - a desire that led Spinoza to make crucial contributions to every major philosophical topic: the nature of knowledge and freedom, the existence of God, ethics and politics, mind and matter, pleasure and perception. In this new edition of his classic Spinoza (1951), with substantial new material added, the late Sir Stuart Hamsphire offers a masterly introduction to a supreme thinker, and to his enormous influence on philosophy as it has been practised since.
