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- Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc
- Subject: Re: Ethics -- a quest
- Message-ID: <1992Jul29.163137.14296@husc3.harvard.edu>
- From: zeleny@husc9.harvard.edu (Michael Zeleny)
- Date: 29 Jul 92 16:31:34 EDT
- References: <1992Jul27.054647.26559@StarConn.com>
- Organization: The Phallogocentric Cabal
- Nntp-Posting-Host: husc9.harvard.edu
- Lines: 36
-
- In article <1992Jul27.054647.26559@StarConn.com>
- agray@StarConn.com (Andrew J. Gray) writes:
-
- >I'm new to this group, and to the subject matter in general (seems I've
- >got QUITE a lot of catching up to do...)
- >
- >Anyhow, I just read another feeble attempt to prove the existence of God
- >(Spinoza), in my quest for a cogent discussion of ethics. The work I
- >just read was in fact titled "Ethics", but strikes me as more or less a
- >vehicle for Spinoza to say that God "must necessarily exist".
-
- Note that Spinoza's "Deus sive Natura" has virtually nothing in common with
- the fideistic conception of a personal deity; in particular, it is wholly
- bereft of free will.
-
- >Can anyone provide pointers to a discussion of ethics that is NOT based
- >on Judeo-Christian mythology?
-
- Yes -- Spinoza's _Ethics_. You might try reading some exegetic works as
- well, as it is justly considered as one of the most difficult philosophical
- texts ever written. I recommend books by Joachim, Wolfson, Gueroult,
- Curley, and Bennett as representative of the scope and range of possible
- interpretations. Short of that, you might look at the Encyclopedia of
- Philosophy for concise, reliable sound bites.
-
- Finally, there's always the incomparable discussion of ethics (and
- politics) contained in _La Philosophie dans le boudoir_ by marquis de Sade.
-
- >Andrew Gray
- >agray@starconn.com
-
- regards,
- mikhail zeleny@husc.harvard.edu
- "Un de mes plus grands plaisirs est de jurer Dieu quand je bande."
-
-
-