Baruch Spinoza was born in the Netherlands in 1632. In this country, he grew up, was exiled, perhaps loved, thought, and wrote. Almost all of his works, among which is the famous 'Ethics,' were published by his friends after his death (1677).

He himself says in the Political Treatise: 'When I therefore engaged in politics, I did not intend to arrive at novel or unheard-of conclusions, but only at those that are most consistent with action; and I sought to prove them with certain and indubitable reasonings, deriving them from the very condition of human nature.'

In order to examine what pertains to this science with the same freedom of spirit to which we are accustomed in mathematics, instead of mocking, lamenting, or cursing human actions, I took special care to understand them.

Thus, I considered human passions - such as love, hatred, anger, envy, pride, compassion, and the other fluctuations of the soul - not as distortions of human nature but as properties that belong to it, just as heat, cold, bad weather, lightning, and other similar phenomena belong to the nature of the atmosphere.

Even if they are troubling, however, they are necessary and have defined causes, through which we attempt to understand their nature; and our soul derives as much joy from the correct understanding of them as it does from the knowledge of things that please the senses.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]