Ethics

Ethics is structured in a rigorously logical way. In each of the five parts, Spinoza begins by defining relevant terms and ideas. Next, he states a series of axioms, or ideas assumed to be true. From these definitions and axioms, he then presents his propositions, or philosophical assertions, and supports them with logical argument. Throughout the text Spinoza refers back to previous definitions, axioms, and propositions, usually in parentheses.

In Part 1 Spinoza discusses the nature of God. God is the cause of all things that exist, a being “whose essence involves existence” and “whose nature cannot be conceived except as existing” (1). He is a substance—a thing which “is in itself and is conceived through itself […] whose concept does not require the concept of another thing” (1). God is “a being absolutely infinite,” a “substance consisting of an infinity of attributes, of which each one expresses an eternal and infinite essence” (1). God is free, existing from the necessity of his nature alone, whereas the effects God produces follow necessarily from his nature.

God exists because it is logically necessary for an absolutely infinite being to exist. In nature there can be only one

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