This book is intended for the use of the candid student, devised as a monitory preparation for deeper study of the philosophy of Spinoza. By its means it is hoped that the student may avoid the chief pitfalls of Spinoza-interpretation, and be carried past many of the difficulties encountered by the modern mind in the study of his writings. To this end perhaps the greatest hindrance to be met by the beginner is the 'popular' exposition that attempts to expound the thought of one age in terms of the favoured categories of another. By providing the necessary safeguards against misinterpretations arising from such causes, the author has sought to awaken interest in the closely knit fabric of Spinoza's doctrine of man and nature and God, and its practical import - and thus to revivify a specimen too long deprived of its native air.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Frontispiece: Benedict de Spinoza: From a pen and ink drawing by the author
Preface
Biographical note
Bibliographical note
Introduction
Part I: The Doctrine of Being
I. 'Cause of Itself'
II. 'God or Nature'
III. The Modes of Substance
IV. Durational Beings
I. Finite Modes and Eternal and Durational
II. The Descent from Eternity:
III. 'Reference to God' and Self-Reference
IV. The Ontological Status of Durational Beings
Part II: The Doctrine of Knowledge
V. Ideas and Ideata
VI. The Kinds of Knowledg
VII. Inadequate Knowledge
VIII. The Affectus and Mental Dispositions
Part III: The Doctrine of Liberation
IX. The Moral Predicament
X. Emendation
XI. The Civic State and Morality
XII. The Free Man
Index
I. References to the Works of Spinoza
II. Subjects, Personal Names, and Catchwords
