Creator Bio

Baruch Spinoza

1632–1677

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza, one of the world’s greatest philosophers, was born in Amsterdam to parents of Portuguese New Christian origin and educated in the Talmud Torah of the Portuguese Sephardic community. He read extensively, including Hobbes and Descartes. In 1656, the Jewish community excommunicated Spinoza for “abominable heresies” and “monstrous deeds,” likely related to his denial of God’s transcendence, the divine origin of the Hebrew Bible, and immortality of the soul. In contrast to da Costa, Spinoza sought neither to rejoin the Jewish community nor to convert to Christianity; some consider him Europe’s first intentionally secular Jew. His biblical source criticism and arguments for religious toleration are articulated in his major works Theological-Political Treatise (1670) and Ethics (1677).

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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Tractatus de intellectus emendatione (Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect)

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[1] After experience had taught me that all the things which regularly occur in ordinary life are empty and futile, and I saw that all the things which were the cause or object of my fear had nothing…

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Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being

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Love:I see, Brother, that my being and perfection depend entirely on your perfection; and since the perfection of the object you have conceived…

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Letter to Johannes Bouwmeester

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To the Very Learned and Experienced Mr. Johannes Bouwmeester From B. d. S. Most Learned Sir, special Friend, I have not been able till now to reply to your last letter, which I received some time…

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Letter to Hugo Boxel

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From B. d. S. Sir, Yesterday I received your letter, which was very welcome to me, as much because I wanted to hear some news from you as because I see that…

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Letter to Jarig Jelles

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From B. d. S. [Dear Friend], As far as Politics is concerned, the difference you ask about, between Hobbes and me, is this: I always preserve natural Right…

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Ethics

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Third Part of the Ethics on the Origins and Nature of the Affects

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Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (Theological-Political Treatise)

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[47] Now all that remains is to reply to certain arguments by which they want to persuade themselves that the choice of the Hebrews was not for a time, and in relation only to their state, but eternal…