"The Ethics" is the magnum opus, the most famous work of Benedict de Spinoza, considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy. In this volume, which was published posthumously, Spinoza lays out his ethical philosophy in geometrical order, with axioms and definitions followed by propositions. "The Ethics" is divided into five Part One - Concerning God, Part Two - On the Nature and Origin of the Mind, Part Three - On the Origin and Nature of the Emotions, Part Four - Of Human Bondage, or The Strength of The Emotions, and Part Five - Of the Power of the Understanding, or Of Human Freedom. Spinoza's "Ethics" is considered one of the most important philosophical treatises on the subject and a must read for all students of philosophy. Also contained in this volume is a representative selection from Spinoza's "On the Improvement of the Understanding".
Richard F. Johnsonbaugh is an American mathematician and computer scientist. His interests include discrete mathematics and the history of mathematics. He is the author of several textbooks. Johnsonbaugh earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Yale University, and then moved to the University of Oregon for graduate study. He completed his Ph.D. at Oregon in 1969. His dissertation, I. Classical Fundamental Groups and Covering Space Theory in the Setting of Cartan and Chevalley; II. Spaces and Algebras of Vector-Valued Differentiable Functions, was supervised by Bertram Yood. He also has a second master's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is currently professor emeritus at De Paul University.