Book, Desire passion and action in Spinoza's ethics[LS]

The eight essays gathered in the book were originally texts for conferences or separate articles. In them, Marilena Chaui addresses the main themes of Spinoza's ethics, whose work she has studied since her master's degree. Adopting the 17th century spirit of refusing a contingency inapprehensible by reason and seeking through logical exercise the understanding of human passions, the philosopher constructs a broad and clear picture of Spinoza's main concepts, illustrating it sometimes with national and universal literary texts, sometimes with the rich dialogue between Spinoza and his contemporaries. As Marilena Chaui's readers and students know, her enormous capacity for synthesis and her clear writing are fundamental for the intricate concepts of different philosophical systems to be learned and appreciated by everyone, within the vast panel of the history of philosophy that has been offered to the public consistently for several years. Thanks to him, even non-specialized readers acquire valuable tools for thinking about contemporary society.