Baruch Spinoza: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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'''Baruch''' ('''de''') '''Spinoza'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|b|ə|ˈ|r|uː|k|_|s|p|ɪ|ˈ|n|oʊ|z|ə}};<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/spinoza |title=Spinoza |work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|access-date=27 April 2019}}</ref> Dutch: {{IPA-|nl|baːˈrux spɪˈnoːzaː|}}; Portuguese: {{IPA-|pt|ðɨ ʃpiˈnɔzɐ|}}; {{Lang-he|ברוך שפינוזה}}. His boyhood and early adult business name was "Bento", and his synagogue name was "Baruch", the Hebrew translation of "Bento", which means "blessed".{{sfn|Nadler|1999|p=42}} As a correspondent, he primarily signed his name as "Benedictus".{{sfn|Israel|2023|pp=353-54}}}} (24 November 1632{{spaced ndash}}21 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name '''Benedictus de Spinoza''', was a philosopher of [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews|Portuguese-Jewish]] origin. A forerunner of the [[Age of Enlightenment]], Spinoza significantly influenced modern [[biblical criticism]], 17th-century [[rationalism]], and Dutch intellectual culture, establishing himself as one of the most important and radical philosophers of the [[early modern period]].{{sfn|Nadler|2018|pp=xiii-xiv}} Influenced by [[Stoicism]], [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[René Descartes]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Schmitter |first=Amy M. |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-link=Edward N. Zalta |title=Spinoza on the Emotions |website=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotions-17th18th/LD5Spinoza.html |date=8 Apr 2021}}</ref> [[Ibn Tufayl]],{{sfn|Attar|2007|p=52}} and [[heterodoxy|heterodox]] Christians, Spinoza was a leading philosopher of the [[Dutch Golden Age]].{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=63}}

Spinoza was born in [[Amsterdam]] to a [[Marrano]] family that fled [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]] for the more tolerant [[Dutch Republic]]. He received a traditional Jewish education, learning [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and studying sacred texts within the Portuguese Jewish community, where his father was a prominent merchant. As a young man, Spinoza challenged rabbinic authority and questioned Jewish doctrines, leading to his [[Herem (censure)|permanent expulsion]] from the Jewish community in 1656. Following his excommunication, he distanced himself from all religious affiliations and devoted himself to philosophical inquiry and lens grinding. Spinoza attracted a dedicated circle of followers who gathered to discuss his writings and joined him in the intellectual pursuit of truth.

Spinoza published little to avoid persecution and bans on his books. In his ''[[Tractatus Theologico-Politicus]]'', described by [[Steven Nadler]] as "one of the most important books of Western thought", Spinoza questioned the divine origin of the [[Hebrew Bible]] and the nature of [[God]] while arguing that ecclesiastic authority should have no role in a secular, democratic state.{{sfn|Nadler|2011|pp=xi-xii}}{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=332}} ''[[Ethics (Spinoza book)|Ethics]]'' argues for a [[pantheistic]] view of God and explores the place of human freedom in a world devoid of theological, cosmological, and political moorings.{{sfn|Stewart|2006|p=308}} Rejecting messianism and the emphasis on the afterlife, Spinoza emphasized appreciating and valuing life for ~~ourselves~~oneself and others. By advocating for individual liberty in its moral, psychological, and metaphysical dimensions, Spinoza helped establish the genre of political writing called [[secular theology]].{{sfn|Smith|1997|pp=2-3}}

Spinoza's philosophy spans nearly every area of philosophical discourse, including [[metaphysics]], [[epistemology]], [[Political Philosophy|political philosophy]], [[ethics]], [[Philosophy of Mind|philosophy of mind]], and [[Philosophy of Science|philosophy of science]]. His friends posthumously published his works, captivating philosophers for the next two centuries. Celebrated as one of the most original and influential thinkers of the seventeenth century, [[Rebecca Goldstein]] dubbed him "the renegade Jew who gave us modernity."{{sfn|Goldstein|2006|p=i}}

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During the [[First Anglo-Dutch War]], much of the Spinoza firm's ships and cargo were captured by [[Commonwealth of England|English]] ships, severely affecting the firm's financial viability. The firm was saddled with debt by the war's end in 1654 due to its merchant voyages being intercepted by the English, leading to its decline.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|pp=100-101}}{{sfn|Israel|2023|pp=206}} Spinoza's father died in 1654, making him the head of the family, responsible for organizing and leading the Jewish mourning rituals, and in a business partnership with his brother of their inherited firm.{{sfn|Israel|2023|pp=204-05}} As Spinoza's father had poor health for some years before his death, he was significantly involved in the business, putting his intellectual curiosity on hold.{{sfn|Israel|2023|pp=205-06}} Until 1656, he continued financially supporting the synagogue and attending services in compliance with synagogue conventions and practice.{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=210}} By 1655, the family's wealth had evaporated and the business effectively ended.{{sfn|Israel|2023|pp=205-06}}

In March 1656, Spinoza went to the city authorities for protection against debts in the Portuguese Jewish community. To free himself from the responsibility of paying debts owed toby his late father, Spinoza appealed to the city to declare him an orphan;{{sfn|Nadler|2001|p=25}} since he was a legal minor, not understanding his father's indebtedness would remove the obligation to repay his debts and retrospectively renounce his inheritance.{{sfn|Israel|2023|pp=220-22}} Though he was released of all debts and legally in the right, his reputation as a merchant was permanently damaged in addition to violating a synagogue regulation that business matters are to be arbitrated within the community.{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=222}}{{sfn|Nadler|2001|p=25}}

===Expulsion from the Jewish community===

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[[File:Den Haag - Nieuwe Kerk - Burial Monument to Benedictus de Spinoza - Baruch de Spinoza - Benedict de Spinoza - Benedito de Espinosa.jpg|thumb|Spinoza's memorial plaque in the churchyard of the [[Nieuwe Kerk (The Hague)|Nieuwe Kerk]]. When he was buried, no tombstone or plaque was prepared. His vault was close to [[Johan de Witt]]'s remains.]]

Spinoza's health began to fail in 1676, and he died in The Hague on 21 February 1677 at age 44, attended by a physician friend, Georg Herman Schuller. Spinoza had been ill with some form of lung affliction, probably [[tuberculosis]] and possibly complicated by [[silicosis]] brought on by grinding glass lenses.{{sfn|Gullan-Whur|1998|pp=317-18}} Although Spinoza had been becoming sicker for weeks, his death was sudden, and he died without leaving a will.{{sfn|Israel|2023|pp=1150-1151}}{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=406}} Reports circulated that he repented his philosophical stances on his deathbed, but these tales petered out in the 18th century. Lutheran preacher Johannes Colerus wrote the first biography of Spinoza for the original reason of researching his final days.{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=1155}}

By the time of his death, he had never married and had no children.<ref name="x962">{{cite web | last=Cartwright | first=Mark | title=Baruch Spinoza | website=World History Encyclopedia | date=2024-01-29 | url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Baruch_Spinoza/ | access-date=2024-09-09}}</ref>

Spinoza was buried inside the [[Nieuwe Kerk (The Hague)|Nieuwe Kerk]] four days after his death, with six others in the same vault. At the time, there was no memorial plaque for Spinoza. In the 18th century, the vault was emptied, and the remnants scattered over the earth of the churchyard. The memorial plaque is outside the church, where some of his remains are part of the churchyard's soil.{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=1158}} Spinoza's friends rescued his personal belongings, papers, and unpublished manuscripts. His supporters took them away for safekeeping from seizure by those wishing to suppress his writings, and they do not appear in the inventory of his possessions at death. Within a year of his death, his supporters translated his Latin manuscripts into Dutch and other languages.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=409}} Secular authorities and later the Roman Catholic Church banned his works.{{sfn|Israel|1996|p=3}}{{sfn|Totaro|2015|pp=321-22}}

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==Other philosophical connections==

Many authors have discussed similarities between Spinoza's philosophy and Eastern philosophical traditions. Few decades after the philosopher's death, [[Pierre Bayle]], in his famous ''[[Dictionnaire Historique et Critique|Historical and Critical Dictionary]]'' (1697) pointed out a link between Spinoza's alleged atheism with "the theology of a Chinese sect", supposedly called "Foe Kiao",<ref>Pierre Bayle. ''[https://archive.org/details/dictionnairehis42unkngoog/page/96/mode/1up?view=theater Dictionnaire Historique et Critique]'', vol. 13 (in French). Libraire Desoer, Paris, 1820, p. 416 </ref> of which had learned thanks to the testimonies of the Jesuit missions in Eastern Asia. A century later, [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] also established a parallel between the philosophy of Spinoza and the ~~think~~thinking of [[Laozi]] (a "monstrous system" in his words), grouping both under the name of pantheists, criticizing what he described as mystical tendencies in them.<ref>Immanuel Kant. "[https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/voices.uchicago.edu/dist/f/106/files/2013/02/Kant-The-end-of-all-things.pdf The end of all things]", in: '' Religion and Rational Theology''. Transl. and edited by Allen W. Wood and George Di Giovanni. Cambridge University Press, p.228 </ref>

In 1863, [[Elijah Benamozegh]] purported to establish that the main source of Spinoza's ontology is Kabbalah.<ref>Elijah Benamozegh, 'Spinoza et la Kabbale', in ''L'Univers Israélite'', Paris, 1863; eng. transl. ''Spinoza and Kabbalah'', Puyméras: éditions localement transcendantes, 2024, ISBN 9782383660378 </ref> The most recent research in the field seems to vindicate that claim.<ref>Miquel Beltran, The Influence of Abraham Cohen de Herrera's Kabbalah on Spinoza's Metaphysics, Brill, 2016, ISBN 9789004315679 </ref>

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==Depictions and influence in literature==

Spinoza's life and work have been the subject of interest for several writers. For example, this influence was considerably early in German literature, where [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] makes a glowing mention of the philosopher in his memoirs, highlighting the positive influence of the ''Ethics'' in his personal life.<ref>Johan W. von Goethe. ''[https://archive.org/details/theworksofjohann02goet/page/n14/mode/1up Autobiography]'', vol. 2. Transl. by John Oxenford. The Anthological Society. London-Chicago, 1901, Chapters 14-16, p.178-248 </ref> The same thing happened in the case of his compatriot, the poet [[Heinrich Heine|Heine]], who is also lavish in praise for Spinoza on his ''[[Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland|On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany]]'' (1834).<ref>Heinrich Heine. ''[https://books.google.com~~.mx~~/books~~/about/History_of_Religion_and_Philosophy_in_Ge.html~~?id=EX4PAQAAIAAJ~~&redir_esc=y~~ On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany]''. Edited by Paul L. Rose. James Cook University of North Queensland, 1982, p. 56-57 </ref>

In the following century, the Argentinian [[Jorge Luis Borges]] famously wrote two sonnets in his honor ("Spinoza" in ''El otro, el mismo'', 1964; and "Baruch Spinoza" in ''La moneda de hierro'', 1976), and several direct references to Spinoza's philosophy can be found in this writer's work.<ref> Marcelo Abadi: [https://www.borges.pitt.edu/bsol/abadi.php "Spinoza in Borges' looking-glass"]. Borges Studies Online. J. L. Borges Center for Studies & Documentation. Internet: 14/04/01 </ref> Also in Argentina and previously to Borges, the Ukrainian-born Jewish intellectual [[Alberto Gerchunoff]] wrote a novella about philosopher's early sentimental life, ''Los amores de Baruj [sic] Spinoza'' (lit. "The loves of Baruj Spinoza", 1932), recreating a supposed affair or romantic interest with Clara Maria van den Enden, daughter of his Latin teacher and philosophical preceptor, [[Franciscus van den Enden|Franciscus]].<ref>Diego Sztulwark: [https://www.elcohetealaluna.com/spinoza-y-la-cultura-judia-argentina/ "Spinoza y la cultura judía argentina"] (in Spanish). ''El Cohete a la Luna'', 2/6/2022 </ref>

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* 1677. ''Compendium grammatices linguae hebraeae'' (''Hebrew Grammar'', unfinished; translated with introduction by M. J. Bloom, London, 1963).<ref>See G. Licata, "Spinoza e la cognitio universalis dell'ebraico. Demistificazione e speculazione grammaticale nel Compendio di grammatica ebraica", Giornale di Metafisica, 3 (2009), pp. 625–61.</ref>

* 1677. ''[[Epistolae (Spinoza)|Epistolae]]'' (''The Letters'', translated by Samuel Shirley, with an Introduction and Notes by S. Barbone, L. Rice and J. Adler, Indianapolis, 1995).

* Last four were originally collected and published by Spinoza's friends briefly later his death, in: ''[https://books.google.com~~.mx~~/books~~/about/B_d_S_Opera_posthuma_quorum_series_post.html~~?id=BoTe8vhY5dkC~~&redir_esc=y~~ B. d. S. Opera Posthuma, Quorum series post Praefationem exhibetur]''. (Amsterdam: Jan Rieuwertsz, 1677; both publisher and place were purposely omitted). Simultaneously, Rieuwertsz also published a Dutch translation by [[Jan Hendriksz Glazemaker]] (who some years later translated the TTP): ''De Nagelate Schriften van B. d. S.'', without the ''Hebrew Grammar''.

===Contemporary Editions===

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* [http://www.quodlibet.it/schedap.php?id=1790 ''Opera posthuma''] – Amsterdam 1677. Complete photographic reproduction, ed. by F. Mignini (Quodlibet publishing house website)

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20200130001741/https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/321 The Ethics of Benedict de Spinoza, translated by George Eliot, transcribed by Thomas Deegan]

* "[https://ethica.bc.edu/#/ Mapping Spinoza's ''Ethics'']": visual representations of the connections between propositions in the ''Ethics''.

*[https://haifa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/collectionDiscovery?vid=HAU&inst=972HAI_MAIN&collectionId=81168904190002791&lang=en_US Spinoza Archive] on the Digital collections of [[Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library]], University of Haifa

* [https://allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/objects/3443/het-naerder-veer-the-ferry-to-naarden-from-the-series-vie# Leprozengracht with a view on the houses at Houtgracht by Reinier Nooms, 1657 - 1662]

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[[Category:Jewish skeptics]]

[[Category:Jewish translators of the Bible]]

~~[[Category:Liberal theorists]]~~

[[Category:Metaphilosophers]]

[[Category:Metaphysicians]]