Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Spinoza and the Ethics (Routledge Philosophy GuideBooks) [Paperback]

Genevieve Lloyd (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415107822 | ISBN-13: 978-0415107822 | Publication Date: October 4, 1996 | Edition: 1

Spinoza is a key figure in modern philosophy. Ethics is his most studied and well known work. Being both up-to-date and clear, this Guidebook is designed to lead the reader through this complex seminal text.
Spinoza's Ethics introduces and assess:
* Spinoza'a life, and its connection with his thought
* The text of the Ethics
* Spinoza's continuing relevence to contemporary philosophy

Editorial Reviews

Review

...contains a number of striking thematic insights...engagingly written and rewardingly focused...Readily accessible to its intended audience, the book will also be of considerable interest to more advanced students and philosophers as a further expression of Lloyd's distinctive reading of Spinoza.
–Ethics

Lloyd has many important insights. She emphasizes the plentitude of substance, the identity of thought and reality, intuitive knoledge, the irreducible particularity have been forgotten..
–Philosophy in Review/Comptes rendus philosophiques

I do believe that this book can provide clear guidance to the first-time reader while challenging the veteran Spinozist with its impressive interpretive insight. The book provides an accessible and engaging introduction to one of philosophy's most challenging works.
–Professor J. Thomas Cook, Rollins College

I have read Spinoza and the Ethics with great pleasure an am deeply impressed. It discusses an exceptionally wide range of poast and present readings of the Ethics, so that the reader gains a sense of the many angles from which this text has been approached ... It offers an interpretation of the whole of the Ethics, and culminates in a fascinating and nuanced discussion of it final section about the intellectual love of God. Most importantly, it develops a distinctive and insightful account which aims both to do justice to Spinoza's own philosophical aspirations, and to relate these to our own.
–Susan James, Girton College, Cambridge

This well-crafted and pithy introduction to Ethics, intended for students coming to Spinoza for the first time, ranks with the best of its kind to appear since Hampshire's classic Spinoza (1951).
–Religious Studies Review

About the Author

Genevieve Lloyd is at the University of New South Wales.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (October 4, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415107822
• ISBN-13: 978-0415107822
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,460,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A garden of Spinozistic delights, December 13, 2002

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Spinoza and the Ethics (Routledge Philosophy GuideBooks) (Paperback)

Genevieve Lloyd's introduction and commentary to Spinoza's _Ethics_ has become one of my favorites. If you want a general introduction to Spinoza, I recommend starting with Roger Scruton or (second choice) Diane Steinberg. But if you're going to try to read the _Ethics_, you can't ask for a better companion than Lloyd.

It's wonderful to see how much she gets right. For example, in just a few short paragraphs, she not only adopts Martial Gueroult's suggestion to regard Spinoza as a panentheist (correctly, in my opinion), but _also_ explains the main hazard of this view (that we may forget Spinoza's God is fully expressed in each of his attributes). It's nice to see such excellent philosophical sense compressed into two pages of text.

She also takes Jonathan Bennett to task, quite rightly, for his reading in _A Study of Spinoza's Ethics_. I really like Bennett's commentary and I think every philosopher deserves a critic of his caliber. But he reads Spinoza, indeed expressly sets out to read Spinoza, only to find out what he has to say that is of interest to the modern academic philosopher, and he thereby winds up missing the point a lot. Lloyd sets him straight on several issues -- not least his failure to appreciate that Spinoza's development of collaborative ethics from self-regard depends on a new understanding of the self.

She's pretty good on the subject of the mind's eternality, too. I won't try to summarize her claims on this overworked subject; let's just say that she provides a fairly sound reply to Bennett's claim that the second half of Book Five doesn't have anything important to say to us.

There are several other good commentaries on the _Ethics_, of which I personally recommend Curley's _Behind the Geometrical Method_ and Bennett's aforementioned _A Study of Spinoza's Ethics_. (Among older ones, I still like Joachim's best.) But if you want a commentary suitable for both introductory and advanced readers that does a nice job of letting Spinoza speak for himself, Lloyd's is it.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for beginners!!!, September 18, 2006

By 

Boileau0663 (Tournai, Belgique) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Spinoza and the Ethics (Routledge Philosophy GuideBooks) (Paperback)

This book is an erudite discussion of Spinoza's philosophy which presupposes a lot of previous knowledge of his doctrine. To take but one example, the first chapter does not explain the central notions of substance, modes and attributes, but discusses them, which is mainly done by comparing the points of view of several Spinoza scholars. All in all, this so-called "guidebook" is in fact a kind of dialogue the author is having with other specialists.
Therefore, if you want to get acquainted with Spinoza and undestand the basics, don't buy this book. I recommend Robert Duff's "Spinoza's Political and Ethical Philosophy" instead.