The class is designed as a comprehensive seminar on Spinoza's philosophy. In reading closely the Ethics, we will focus on Spinoza's main philosophical doctrines-- the geometrical method, moinism, necessitarianism, conatus, knowledge as power and eternity, to give some examples. We will locate the significance of these doctrines in relation to other thinkers (Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche); and in the context of Spinoza's and the enlightenment's political philosophy (critique of revelation and prophecy, freedom of thought, revolution).