Excerpt from Spinoza Selections<br><br>IT Is perhaps impossible to understand any philosophy without a knowledge of the life and personality of which it is the expression. Of Spinozism this is especially the case, for, whether we View it from the standpoint of the thought or that of the thinker of the thought, the two fuse into one organic and consistent whole. One of the most characteristic doctrines of the system is the identity of intellect and will, of thought and action. For Spinoza thinking was in no sense the exploration of a dream - world but a way of life. And when we View the man himself certainly there is no figure in the whole history of thought who in his concrete actions has so whole - heartedly devoted himself to the search for truth, and literally lived the philosophic life.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.