The jewish-spanish presence in Spinoza's ethics

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to expose in short the influence of some Hispanic Jewish thought in Spinoza's ethics, especially In Gabirol and his books The Improvement of the Moral Qualities. Fons Vitae and Selection of Pearls; and in Ibn Paqûda and his hook, The Duties of the Heart, besides other Hispanic Jewish philosophers, as Yehudah ha-Levi, and Muslims as Ibn Bâyya and Ibn Hazm. The points of comparison are (and almost many of these parallelisms never are exposed): first, the value of reason in the construction of an ethical system, the geometrical exposure included; second, the concept of religion; third, some stoical aspects; fourth, the conception of death; fifth, the causes of election by God of the Hebrewsas special people among other nations of Earth.