Ethics (Spinoza book)

Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order

The opening page of Ethics, in the posthumous Latin first edition
Author	Baruch Spinoza
Country	Dutch Republic
Language	Latin
Genre	Philosophy
Publication date	1677
Original text	Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order at Latin Wikisource
Translation	Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order at Wikisource

Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order (Latin: Ethica, ordine geometrico demonstrata), usually known as the Ethics, is a philosophical treatise written in Latin by Baruch Spinoza (Benedictus de Spinoza). It was written between 1661 and 1675^[1] and was first published posthumously in 1677.

The book is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to apply Euclid's method in philosophy. Spinoza puts forward a small number of definitions and axioms from which he attempts to derive hundreds of propositions and corollaries, such as "When the Mind imagines its own lack of power, it is saddened by it",^[2] "A free man thinks of nothing less than of death",^[3] and "The human Mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the Body, but something of it remains which is eternal."^[4]