Selection from – Ethics – Part IV. Of Human Bondage, or the Strength of the Emotions (Page 21)
Spinoza's Words: Note on the Appendix that concludes Part IV
Spinoza ends Part IV with a long appendix of thirty two sections in which he abandons the geometrical method.
He begins with these words:
What I have said in this Part concerning the right way of life has not been arranged, so as to admit of being seen at one view, but has been set forth piece-meal, according as I thought each Proposition could most readily be deduced from what preceded it. I propose, therefore, to rearrange my remarks and to bring them under leading heads.
Comment:
Evidently Spinoza thought he needed to present his ideas on the strength of the emotions in a different form. Some of the sections contain interesting expansions of the ideas expressed in Part IV and are presented in the following pages.