Spinoza’s Ethics - Chapter 1 

Absolutely invaluable explication of Spinoza's ethics. Ive been replaying your 4 videos at least 3 times a day to fully grasp his meanings and i must say; in about 4 more days of repeating i should be able to tackle the source material loll. Really though, thank you for doing Spinoza, he is becoming my favorite philosopher!! You did an amazing job MrSkype!!!

Man, I needed a teacher like you. Excellent explanation.

I have learned more from this professor in 21 minutes than I have from my current professor in 75 minutes, 2x a week for 4 months.

I found a gem here. I really understand everything about Spinoza's ontology in this video in a pretty short time. Thanks for the brilliant content ✨

Whenever I study early-modern philosophers I get this feeling that I understand them yet I also don't understand them. Videos like these give me the credence and confidence I need. Thank you.

I've watched this video several times and I can truly say that it is a very clear and cogent presentation of Spinoza's thought. I've been studying Spinoza's metaphysics for fifty plus years. It made sense to me when first encountered; today, it makes even more sense.

This exposition of Spinoza's Ethics is brilliant - so rare to see someone who can use words (especially on a philosophical topic) with such care and precision (but without pedantry). Extraordinary insight and clarity and simplicity of explanation.

I've enjoyed the lecture immensely. I've read his 'Ethics' and found it a bit cryptic. Your explanations are very helpful.

My most sincere gratitudes sir! Now I can comeback to "Ethics" and continue reading after giving it up 6 years ago. Many thanks for your simplified and rather genuine method.

Thank you for the very accesible introduction to Spinoza

Easy, fluent speech about Spinoza. I am enjoyed it.

An accurate & clear presentation of Spinoza's ontology.

Thank you so much! Doing an essay on Spinoza and you are so much clearer than my University!

I wanted to start spinoza long time ago. Thanks!

This was amazing, you helped me study for a philosophy exam! Thank you

I am re reading the ehtics and your explanation is absolutely correct. You are a great teacher. Thank you. Greeting from Spain!

So happy I found your channel ! Great explication to Spinoza. Thank you!

I spent all of last night reading and Re-reading Spinoza ethics on god, and while I got some stuff, it really wasn’t clicking. This video helped me out so much

Your idea expressed at the end about science and philosophy are spot on. When students were required to study the classics (Einstein disliked it) they were exposed to many differing ideas which they would no doubt argue themselves. The requirement for a degree in divinity for a PhD was also an opportunity to expand intellectual horizons. Without these, scientists seem to be more technicians and less thinkers.

This actually helped me understand Spinoza’s Ethics a lot! I was getting stuck on the first few sentences lol thanks man!

Wonderfully explained! thank you!

Hard science cannot explain everything; these are brilliant lectures and easy to digest.

Great lesson, thank you

excellent class. I have seen you for a while for your English classes which they are awesome. I really enjoy your philosophy class. Many thanks

Such a fascinating lecture! 👏👏👏Thank you for being on RU-vid, Mr. Nicholls! I love all your lectures, and I’ve watched this one several times! Love it! Pls do more 🙏👍👏

I'm from India. I wanted to read ethics book. But my english comprehension skill is pretty average. I wanted a good explanation after reading each chapter. Found you channel. Grateful! Thank you very much 🙏

Thank you soo much 🙏😀 you are Absolutely amazing!. Love the way you lecture with passion and simplicity. I got a much firmer grip on the subject, and am feeling less scared sitting for my exam after the Christmas period🤓💪.

Super clear explanations of a difficult philosophy conceptually. Well done, thanks.

im currently studying the works of spinoza and ur lesson has been great for me to digest. ❤

An amazing video, really admire it! Thanks for those clean explanations 🧎🏻‍♀️

Thank you so much for this beautiful analysis. It has helped me in my understanding of these concepts presented by Baruch Spinoza.

I followed your English lessons. I came across your lecture on Spinoza today. Thanks for this. I don't know if you've ever tried, maybe you can combine philosophy, history, politics and English lessons. I followed the lesson on political words. It may be a good idea to make this continuously. You first explain important terms so that it is much easier for us to understand thinkers like Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Smith. We will both learn academic vocabulary and increase our ability to read primary sources. Thanks again.

you're just great sir!!! Thank you for amazing i wish the videos where little longer as i kinda enjoy them

This was fantastic. Thank you, sir!

Thanks a lot. Your efforts mean a lot to me.

Thank you for the Spinoza lessons. They are detailed enough and well structured.

Dude this was seriously an excellent introduction. I'm blown away. and I watch a lot of online philosophy videos before I dive into a new thinker. So i think that qualifies me to make such assessments lol.

I think these lectures will make reading it a lot more fun, if I already have a general grasp of the ideas and can really dig into his language and arguments:). Thank you for making these freely available, I didn’t expect to find this resource! (Though I have strong feelings in favour of the Big Bang 😆)

Please do more on spinoza. Would love it if you could delve a little more into ethics. In detail that is.

Glad to find this… i have a hard time understanding spinoza. Thank you for this class.

thank you for uploading these, we just started studying this in class and it's so helpful

I had an issue with trying to summarize this topic, thanks to you, I've done that... Thank you so much

Thank you for the great lecture!

Your philosophy classes are inspiring and thought provoking. Great job! Thank you.

Very well organized, just the way I like it 🙂

You're very , very good at what you do. Well done sir......

The big bang in my understanding says that as of yet we cannot tell what there was or what was happening before it, although there are many theories.

Thank you, you've done a very good job, your summaries of the five parts of Spinoza's Ethics are really usefull for the understanding of this great book!

I totally agree: Science and philosophy should remain linked because they need each other to efficiently grow,. I speak as a scientist. However this video presentation is superbly done: the topic is made easy to understand by the speaker . The same subject taught at colleges and universities is far from being so fascinating. Thank you!

Man this was a dope RU-vid recommendation

great class! so interesting and helpful

This is great, thank you for taking the time to present this.

You've helped a lot for my college course, Descartes to Kant! Thank you!

Very well explained love your videos keep up the work.

Thank you-- first video on Spinoza that I could actually understand ( a bit).. I guess I'm a Spinozan!

Listening to this fantastic lecture in January 2021🌺🌷🌸

I feel extremely comfortable with Spinoza's philosophy (ontology)

Very good teaching!

The best explanation on Spinoza so far for me. Science does not look down on anything, it is not a person. Science is an aggregation of knowledge which has been demonstrated and proven many time and assumes true until proven wrong. The big bang is a theory. Don't mix up science and theories. I would say that it is philosophy which has lost its way in our modern world

You bear a strong resemblance to Jason Bateman from Arrested Development! Thanks for the lesson. I was looking for someone to break down Ethics to make it easier to understand, and this hit the spot.

brilliant! thanks for the help!

Awesome video! (and I greatly admire Spinoza's thoughts, so neat). I just discovered Dave's philosophy videos the other day (I loved the one on Thales), also fantastic! Thank you so much :-)

Thank you for the explanation. The guy writes in a really strange way that makes it difficult to understand. Thanks !

Thanks so much for doing these videos. Great explanation/presentation :)

great explanation, thanks.

Are we divisible because we are a finite thing and not Substance? Thank you for your time, Professor.

I really want to read Spinoza's work. Do you have any recommendations for the runes version of Ethics, and where that could be found? Thank you.

Brilliant. Thank you, this was a great help.

Great video! You should do more on philosophy.

I've never read a book like Spinoza's "Ethics". As soon as I put it down I pick it up again. I always keep it near me when I'm at my computer.

Very well done Sr.

Very good. Thank you.

Great job..where can I get your videos about ancient greek philosophers?

thank you so much for this video!

Great video. Thanks

Very informative

I found your lecture very helpful but looked for a free, downloadable version of the Ruse edition of Ethics and couldn't find. Can you helop?

Dave, please make a video on how to write literary essay!

What a good lecture.

Please do more philosophical analyses of other texts!

Excellent 👌

You're doing Spinoza a great disservice

Excellent ! thank you.

Could you teach us more about other works ir Spinoza? Please teacher!!!

Beautiful

Excellent!

Thanks! this was very helpful!

You are fantastic

Will you someday cover Marx?

Thank you so much for the help! Trying to learn Spinoza in my own free time!

Hello! Thank you for an amazing lesson . Where could we find the book ? Is it possible to download it somewhere?

The infinite and eternal chicken. We could start a new religion))

saving all philosophy majors' asses across the world :,)

OUTSTANDING

Spinoza's god seems very radical to the vedantic thought that god resides in each one of us and we all are collectively one. Spinoza's god can help to the people who do not believe in god they cannot see. But it all leads to the destination of oneness or nature or Aham Bhramasmi.

What do you believe instead of the big bang theory? Just wondering :) Thanks for the videos!!

Why don't you believe in the big bang? Haley proved it I believe and it seems perfectly logical. Please let me know what you think. Ty. Good class

It just blows my mind how the concept of Pantheism isn't obvious to everyone. I came up with this idea completely on my own years ago and never knew it wasn't an unoriginal idea until yesterday. Anyone I spoke to about my beliefs looked at me like an alien but I was only describing God by THEIR metrics! You want omni-presant? Omni-potent? The universe is exactly that. Nature is everywhere for all of time and nature/universal laws cannot make objective mistakes. Sure we may see genetic mutations as a "defect" but is it really perfect overall when considering the whole of what the evolution actually is. I believe 100% we exist within the mind of God. Its thoughts expressed through elegant, perfect, even sacred mathematics.

I guess aquinas could argue about the unmoved mover right?

Thanks for the lesson. I read this in the book: PROP. V. There cannot exist in the universe two or more substances having the same nature or attribute. de Spinoza, Benedictus (2017-06-13T23:58:59). Ethics . Kindle Edition. So I agree with this proposition but I cannot understand why Spinoza concludes that there is only one substance out of this proposition...Can anyone explain? Thanks.