Joeri's Reviews > Spinoza: Practical Philosophy

After some years of studying Spinoza I thought to have finally understand him, but leave it to Deleuze to doubt such a claim to knowledge.

This work contains a deep and thourough delving into the complicated concepts of Spinoza's ontology. What follows is a succession of reflections and explications of said concepts, that, although difficult, later in the book become clearer by ways of examples and the comparison with Spinoza's philosophy with ethology.

What results is a harmonious view on the inter-connectivity of all things, meaning that it are not subjects that are the focus of philosophy, but relations between all 'bodies' that affect each other. A body, as a mode of being of the one Substance from which everything has a flow of causes, can be anything: a physical human or animal body, a linguistic concept, a mind or idea. The study of these modes of being is related to how all these body affect one another, and either increase their strength (bringing joy), or diminish it (bringing sadness) through the relations their are part of.

In this sense, one gets a beautiful image of how everything is whole, and everything is connected and dependent on one another.

Reading Spinoza thus can lead to an almost mythical experience.