Ethics

⚖The case for it

Written in geometric form (definitions, axioms, propositions, QED), Spinoza proves that God and Nature are one substance, that free will is an illusion, and that blessedness comes from understanding your place in the whole. Excommunicated by the Amsterdam synagogue at 23, feared by Christians, beloved by Einstein. The most serene radical in the history of thought.

— the canon

✕The case against

Geometry was the wrong costume. The definitions smuggle in everything the propositions pretend to prove, so the QED at each step is theater; meanwhile the form forbids skimming, since Part 5 cites Part 1 like a legal code. Nobody gets through unassisted. Buy a commentary or accept that you are reading conclusions while the arguments happen somewhere offstage.

— the honest librarian