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Ethical Dilemmas Of Bruch Spinoza

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Be not astonished with new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.
Spinoza is psychological and ethical egoist.
Born in 1632 Bruch Spinoza was a descendent of the Portuguese – Jewish community. After much harassment and ill treatment by the Portugal, his family fled to Amsterdam. The unique Jewish community in Amsterdam comprised of the people originally from Spain, Portugal and France who had the urge to practise their inherited faith freely. As a pupil of the congregation, Spinoza received education that deemed necessary as a Jew. This included Hebrew, liturgy, Torah, prophetic writings, and rabbinical commentaries. Even though, he excelled as a student, he left school whether by necessity or by desire and went onto to work in his father’s business. The advantage of having an open community in Amsterdam, exposed him to the so called ‘free – thinkers’, the Protestants. The vast stream of diverse thoughts got him interested in theological issues, philosophy and science …show more content…

This ambitious multifaceted work is proved bold to the point of audacity. It tries to show that ethical truths have the same logical necessity as the mathematical truth. The truth about God, nature, self, religion and good life is well presented in the five sub divisions of Ethics. Although metaphysics, physics, anthropology and psychology take most of the first three divisions, the crucial message of work to be ethical in nature is well conveyed. I believe the motive behind Spinoza’s work is to show that happiness does not lie in superstitions that are interpreted as religion but rather in the life of reason. He goes on to explain this transition, in the five parts each consisting of definitions, axioms and

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