In this wide-ranging 2006 introduction to Spinoza’s Ethics, Steven Nadler explains the doctrines and arguments of the Ethics, and shows why Spinoza’s endlessly fascinating ideas may have been so troubling to his contemporaries, as well as why they are still highly relevant today. Nadler also examines the philosophical background to Spinoza’s thought and the dialogues in which Spinoza was engaged – with his contemporaries (including Descartes and Hobbes), with ancient thinkers (especially the Stoics), and with his Jewish rationalist forebears.