The present volume posits the themes of freedom, action, and motivation as the central principles that drive Spinoza’s
Ethics
from its first part to its last. It assembles essays by internationally leading scholars who provide different, sometimes opposing interpretations of these fundamental themes as they operate across the five parts of the
and within its manifold domains. The diversity of issues, approaches, and perspectives within this volume, along with the chapters’ common focus, open up new ways of understanding not only some of the key concepts and main objectives in the
but also the threads unifying the entire work.
The sequence of essays in the book broadly follows the order of the
, providing up-to-date perspectives of Spinoza’s views on freedom, action, and motivation in their ontological, cognitive, physical, affective, and ethical facets. This enables readers to engage with a variety of new interpretations of these key themes of the
and to reconsider their consequences both for other related issues in the
and for the relevance of the
to contemporary trends in philosophy of action and motivation. The essays will contribute to the growing interest in Spinoza’s
and spark further discussion and debate within and outside the vast body of scholarship on this important work.
Freedom, Action, and Motivation in Spinoza’s
Ethics will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working on Spinoza and early modern philosophy, as well as on philosophy of action and motivation.