Ethica, ordine geometrico demonstrata
Ethica, ordine geometrico demonstrata (neo-Latin; ethics, presented according to the geometric method ) or ethics for short is a philosophical work by Baruch Spinoza , which appeared posthumously in 1677, the year of his death. It is considered his main work. Spinoza had already presented many parts of it in writings published earlier.
Social context
Ethics is to be understood in terms of Spinoza's time. While scholars in the Netherlands of the 17th century all too often dedicated themselves to the service of seafaring, trade and early industrialization and used religion as a vehicle for this, Spinoza's approach fundamentally opposes this. According to him, philosophy should be removed from any divine convention and philosophy should serve as a doctrine of life. This was a leap of thought out of scholasticism, comparable to Descartes' response to the second obiectiones against the Meditationes de prima philosophia .
Spinoza was reviled as a dangerous pantheist and atheist by professional theology, especially in Germany, because of his ethics.
Structure: "According to the geometric method"
The geometrical structure of the logical treatise gives the impression that it is a closed, rounded whole. In ethics , Spinoza summarizes both his metaphysics and his anthropology and ethics , strictly following the principles of a method based on Euclidean geometry . This geometric method was a cultural principle of the time. Both French gardens and the preparation for classicism in architecture up to Bach's musical sacrifice permeated the strict geometric structure. Spinoza believed that geometry would enable scientists to assign things to their place in the whole and that their arrangement should not be left to chance, otherwise the truth would remain forever hidden from man. Only in an irrefutable idea of God, man and the world could another norm of truth show itself. That is why it is the task of philosophers to free things from their contradictions.
The treatise is divided into five books.
content
- The first book
- ( De Deo ) deals with the problem of the nature of God.
Spinoza tries to explain the true nature of God. For him God is not to be understood anthropomorphically , i.e. H. as a being who could think, want or even have feelings. In addition, God is not to be understood as an authority who would have created the world through a fiat . In addition, he thinks about the concept of freedom: A thing is free that exists solely from the necessity of its being and is determined to an action only by itself.
- The second book
- ( De natura et origine mentis ) is dedicated to the essence and origin of the mind.
Here he begins with definitions of the terms body, mind, idea, reality. He goes into the interplay of consciousness and expansion and comes to the conclusion: "The order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things." ( Epistemology )
- The third book
- ( De origine et natura affectuum ) On the origin and nature of affects.
Here Spinoza developed his psychology of emotions . At the beginning he defines the terms action, suffering and affect. Basically, Spinoza assumes that every thing strives to maintain itself and to persist in its being ( Conatus ).
- The fourth book
- ( De servitute humana, seu de affectuum viribus ) On the dependence on the forces of the affects.
Here Spinoza's actual ethical assumptions open up in the sense of an applied psychology. First, Spinoza shows the inevitable barriers that are imposed on man by his psychological affects. The pursuit of truth is nothing more than a self-preservation urge of the spirit.
- The fifth book
- ( De potentia intellectus, seus libertate humana ) On the power of reason and human freedom
The true power of reason is engaging in the divine necessity of the being of things. Knowing is freedom , virtue and bliss .
Previously unknown copy of the Ethics in the Vatican Secret Archives
On May 26, 2011, it was announced that a new copy of the Ethics had been found in the Vatican Secret Archives . Leen Spruit found an edition of Ethics from 1675 (two years before Spinoza's death year). However, it is not yet clear whether there are any differences between the previously known, published editions from 1677 and the newly discovered editions from 1675.
Expenses (selection)
- Baruch de Spinoza. Ethica ordine geometrico demonstrata. Latin – German. Newly translated, edited and provided with an introduction by Wolfgang Bartuschat. Felix Meiner Verlag, Hamburg 1999, Philosophical Library, Vol. 92. XXXI, 612 pages, ISBN 978-3-7873-1431-7 .
- Benedictus de Spinoza (1677): The Ethics - Ethica. Latin - German. Based on the edition of Carl Gebhardt's “Spinoza Opera”. Revision of the translation by Jakob Stern (1888). Epilogue v. Bernhard Lakebrink. Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-000851-5 , (first edition: Reclam, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-15-000851-4 ).
literature
- Michael Hampe and Robert Schnepf (eds.): Baruch de Spinoza. Ethics presented in geometric order. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-05-004126-9 .
- H. Fischer (ed.). Jacob Stern, Michael Czelinski-Uesbeck (transl.): Ethics, represented by the geometric method. Marix, Wiesbaden 2007.
Web links
- Ethica, ordine geometrico demonstrata at Zeno.org . in German translation