Spinoza's 'Ethics': What do you mean by 'God'?

Jonathan Rée discusses Spinoza's philosophical treatise the Ethics, an 'idealised intellectual autobiography' that, through its dry definitions and propositions, manages to tell a gripping story. Through this story emerges some of Spinoza's key ideas: that knowledge is a continuum rather than a dichotomy between sensation and reason; that the path to freedom is not about getting what you want but learning to love the world rationally; and his concept of God not as a separate supernatural being, but rather as nature or the universe as a whole, which one comes to love with 'intellectual love' as individual identity is subsumed into the greater whole. Film by Anthony Wilks Get 20% off Jonathan Rée's audiobook, 'Becoming a Philosopher: Spinoza to Sartre', with code YOU20 at checkout here: https://lrb.me/audio Read more on Spinoza in the LRB: Jonathan Rée: Spinoza's Big Idea https://lrb.me/8x8 Richard Popkin: Spinoza v the Synagogue https://lrb.me/kx8 George Steiner on 'Spinoza and Other Heretics' https://lrb.me/cx8 Jonathan Rée: Exit Cogito https://lrb.me/5x8 Stuart Hampshire: Small Creatures https://lrb.me/hx8 Frank Kermode: Theory and Truth https://lrb.me/3x8 Margaret Jacob: Radical Enlightenment https://lrb.me/ux8 Find more philosophy essays in the LRB: https://lrb.me/nx8 Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: https://lrb.me/ytsub ABOUT THE LRB The LRB is Europe’s leading magazine of books and ideas. Published twice a month, it provides a space for some of the world’s best writers to explore a wide variety of subjects in exhilarating detail – from culture and politics to science and technology via history and philosophy. In the age of the long read, the LRB remains the pre-eminent exponent of the intellectual essay, admired around the world for its fearlessness, its range and its elegance. As well as essays and book reviews each issue also contains poems, an exhibition review, ‘short cuts’, letters and a diary, and is available in print, online, and offline via our app. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to almost 15,000 articles in our digital archive. Our website features a regular blog and a channel of audio and video content, including podcasts, author interviews and highlights from the events programme at the London Review Bookshop.