On the Improvement of the Understanding

Name: On the Improvement of the Understanding
Author: Benedict de Spinoza

Benedict de Spinoza (1632–1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish descent, born in Amsterdam and excommunicated from the synagogue in his youth. Working quietly as a lens grinder, he wrote treatises arguing for a God identical with nature and for the critical study of Scripture. Our library holds On the Improvement of the Understanding, his unfinished introduction to philosophy, valued for its influence on the history of thought.

Free

Free: get it — here or in the Christian Classics app — and it's yours to read and listen to on every device you sign in to. About a tenth of it can be read here first, free.

First published: 1677
Category: Holiness
Length: 16k words · about 1 hour
Chapters: 4

About this book

A philosophical treatise on the improvement of the intellect by Benedict de Spinoza, the Dutch philosopher, left unfinished and published after his death in 1677. Spinoza asks how the mind can move from confused ideas toward true knowledge of reality. It is included as background to the intellectual world of the seventeenth century rather than as Christian teaching.