Spinoza and Moral Freedom

S. Paul Kashap is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"Spinoza's Ethics is so eminent a work that literally dozens of attempts to present a coherent interpretation of its main ideas may be found in the literature. But at the same time the work is so difficult that nearly all of these attempts end, at one point or another, attributing views to Spinoza that clash markedly with Spinoza's own words. There are vanishingly few sober, conservative treatments of all the main themes of the Ethics which ultimately attribute a coherent view to Spinoza. And it is the great achievement of Kashap's book to present just such a view. My own prediction is that a surprisingly large number of students of Ethics will discover, with its aid, that at long last an intelligible world-view is discernible in that work, a world-view that is tough-minded, coherent, and perhaps (even as Professor Kashap himself occasionally suggests) true." — Stephen H. Voss

• Preface References to Spinoza's Works Chapter One Substance Chapter Two Ideas Chapter Three Action Chapter Four Cause Chapter Five Freedom Selected Bibliography Index