Philosophy

Baruch Spinoza

1632–1677 · Dutch (of Portuguese-Jewish descent)

Rationalism; early Enlightenment

Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish descent, expelled from Amsterdam's Jewish community in 1656, who earned a modest living grinding lenses. His Ethics, set out in geometrical form, argues that there is only one substance, God or Nature, and his Theologico-Political Treatise pioneered biblical criticism and the defence of freedom of thought, making him a founder of the radical Enlightenment.

How to spot them

▸Deus sive Natura – "God or Nature"
▸Ethics "demonstrated in geometrical order"; substance, attributes and modes
▸Lens grinder; excommunicated (cherem) by the Amsterdam Sephardic community
▸Conatus; sub specie aeternitatis; the "God-intoxicated man"

Key works

Principles of Cartesian Philosophy (Renati Des Cartes Principiorum Philosophiae) (1663)

Geometrical exposition of Descartes's Principles; the only book published under his own name in his lifetime

Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione) (published 1677 (unfinished))

Unfinished essay on method and the path to true knowledge and happiness

Theologico-Political Treatise (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus) (1670)

Published anonymously; historical criticism of the Bible and a defence of freedom to philosophise

Ethics (Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata) (published 1677)

Five-part system in definitions, axioms and propositions on God, mind, emotions, bondage and freedom

Political Treatise (Tractatus Politicus) (published 1677 (unfinished))

Unfinished analysis of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy

Key ideas

Substance monism: there is only one infinite substance, God or Nature (Deus sive Natura); all particular things are modes of it
Of God's infinitely many attributes we know two, thought and extension – mind and body are one thing conceived in two ways
Everything follows necessarily from God's nature; there is no free will in the sense of uncaused choice, and God does not act for purposes
Conatus: each thing strives to persevere in its being
Freedom is understanding necessity; the highest good is the "intellectual love of God", knowing things under a species of eternity (sub specie aeternitatis)
The state exists to secure freedom, and freedom of thought and speech should be protected

Quick-fire facts

•Born in Amsterdam to a Sephardic family; in 1656 the synagogue issued a cherem (writ of expulsion) against him
•He used the Latin name Benedictus de Spinoza; in Portuguese he was Bento de Espinosa
•He supported himself by grinding optical lenses and died of a lung disease in The Hague in 1677
•The Ethics appeared in his Opera Posthuma shortly after his death
•In 1673 he declined an offer of a professorship at Heidelberg to preserve his independence
•Leibniz visited him in The Hague in 1676
•The German poet Novalis called him a "God-intoxicated man"
•Einstein said he believed in "Spinoza's God"

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Sources

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Baruch Spinoza
Bertrand Russell — A History of Western Philosophy