Ethics — Part 4

You know the sun is far away, yet its reflection can make it seem to lie in the water. For Spinoza, truth alone does not silence the mind’s vivid mistakes.

Written between 1661 and 1675, the fourth part of Benedictus de Spinoza’s geometric treatise begins with a question hidden in plain sight: what do we mean by good and evil? In crisp definitions and proofs, he examines how people—parts of nature, never masters of it—can be swept along by passions stronger than their own efforts to persist. Understanding an emotion may not be enough to loosen its grip; another feeling may be needed to overcome it. If we are always exposed to forces beyond ourselves, what can freedom mean?

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