SOURCE: “Spinoza's Philosophy in Its Historical Context,” in Benedict de Spinoza: An Introduction, Yale University Press, 1987, pp. 24-43.

In the following excerpt, Allison explores the historical context that shaped Spinoza's philosophical interests and method.

Spinoza's Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata (Ethics Demonstrated in a Geometrical Manner) is an extremely difficult and forbidding book. Both its obscure, scholastic terminology and its stark, geometrical form provide formidable barriers to even the philosophically trained reader and undoubtedly help to explain the great diversity of ways in which the work has been interpreted. Thus, rather than plunging immediately into the argument of the work, with its strange format of definitions, axioms, and propositions and its bewildering talk of substance, attributes, and modes, it would seem far preferable to consider briefly the historical context in which Spinoza wrote and, in light of this, to introduce the central themes of his philosophy. This will be...