Spinoza and the Discovery of Morality

Authors

Eugene Garver, College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2006

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Ethics and Political Philosophy | Philosophy

Abstract

“The Theological-Political Treatise discovers the existence of morality. The life of justice and charity it advocates, unlike the philosophical life of the intellectual love of God described in the Ethics, is a moral life available to everyone. The life of justice and charity is a life of obedience to the sovereign, yet there are universal moral laws that transcend – although never contradict – the dictates of any particular sovereign. Morality, that is, is as different from politics as it is from ethics and philosophy.”

Comments

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27745070

Recommended Citation

Garver, Eugene. "Spinoza and the Discovery of Morality." History of Philosophy Quarterly 23, no. 4 (October 2006): 357-374. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27745070.