Benedictus de Spinoza or Baruch de Spinoza (lived November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. By virtue of his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, he is also considered one of Western philosophy's definitive ethicists.

Spinoza lived a quiet life as a lens grinder, turning down rewards and honours throughout his life, including prestigious teaching positions, and gave his family inheritance to his sister. Spinoza's moral character and philosophical accomplishments prompted twentieth-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him "The absolute philosopher" (Deleuze, 1990). Spinoza died in February 1677 of consumption, likely compounded by fine glass dust inhaled while tending to his trade. Variations to his surname are abundant: Despinoza, d'Espinoza, de Spinoza, Spinoza, et cetera.

Life

Following their expulsion from Spain around 1492, many Jews sought refuge in Portugal, only to be instructed to accept Christianity or be expelled. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, to parents Miguel de Espinosa and Ana Débora who were of Sephardic Jewish descent, among the Portuguese Jews in the city. Débora was Miguel's second wife and died when Spinoza was only six years old. Spinoza's parents were Conversos who fled from Portugal to escape the Portuguese Inquisition and return to Judaism. Some historians argue the Spinoza family had its remote origins in Spain, others claim they were Portuguese Jews who had moved to Spain and then returned to their home country in 1492, only to be forcibly converted to Catholicism in 1498. Spinoza's father was born roughly a century after this forced conversion in the small Portuguese city of Vidigueira, near Beja in Alentejo. When Spinoza's father was still a child, Spinoza's grandfather, Isaac de Spinoza (who was from Lisbon), went with all his family to Nantes in France. They were expelled in 1615 and moved to Rotterdam, where Isaac died in 1627. Spinoza's father and his uncle, Miguel and Manuel respectively, then moved to Amsterdam where they assumed their Judaism (Manuel even changed his name to Abraão de Spinoza, though his "commercial" name was still the same). His father was a successful importer/merchant and Baruch had an orthodox Jewish upbringing; however, his critical, curious nature would soon come into conflict with the Jewish community. After wars with England and France decimated his family's fortune and the death of his father, he was eventually able to relinquish responsibility for the business and its debts to his brother, Gabriel, and devote himself to philosophy and optics.

Controversial ideas and excommunication

He initially gained infamy for positions that defied the Jewish law, with highly critical positions towards the Talmud and other sacred texts. In general, Judaism is quite tolerant with atypical representations of God; nonetheless, Spinoza believed that God was Nature/Universe, a thought that is unacceptable to Judaism. In the summer of 1656, he was issued the writ of cherem (Hebrew: חרם, similar to excommunication)^[1] from the Jewish community, for the apostasy of how he conceived God. The terms of his cherem were quite severe (see Kasher and Biderman): it was never revoked. Following his excommunication, he adopted the first name Benedictus, the Latin equivalent of his given name, Baruch; they both mean "blessed". In his native Amsterdam he was also known as Bento de Spinoza, which was the informal form of his name.

After his excommunication, it is purported that Spinoza lived and worked in the school of Franciscus van den Enden, who taught him Latin in his youth and may have introduced him to modern philosophy, although Spinoza never mentions Van den Enden anywhere in his books or letters. Van den Enden was a Cartesian and atheist who was forbidden by the city government to propagate his doctrines publicly. Spinoza, having dedicated himself completely to philosophy after 1656, fervently desired to change the world through establishing a clandestine philosophical sect. Because of public censure this was only eventually realized after his death through the dedicated intercession of his friends.

During this period Spinoza also became acquainted with several Collegiants, members of a non-dogmatic and interdenominational sect with tendencies towards rationalism and Arianism. Spinoza also corresponded with Peter Serrarius, a radical Protestant merchant. Serrarius is believed to have been a patron of Spinoza at some point. By the beginning of the 1660s, Spinoza's name became more widely known, and eventually Gottfried Leibniz and Henry Oldenburg paid him visits. He corresponded with the latter for the rest of his life. Spinoza's first publication was his Tractatus de intellectus emendatione. From December 1664 to June 1665, Spinoza engaged in correspondence with Blyenbergh, an amateur Calvinist theologian, who questioned Spinoza on the definition of evil. Later in 1665, he notified Oldenburg that he had started to work on a new book, the Theologico-Political Treatise, published in 1670. It should be noted that Leibniz disagreed harshly with Spinoza in Leibniz's own published Refutation of Spinoza.

When the public reactions to the anonymously published Theologico-Political Treatise were extremely unfavourable to his brand of Cartesianism, Spinoza was compelled to abstain from publishing more of his works. Wary and independent, he wore a signet ring engraved with his initials, a rose and the word "caute" (Latin for caution). The Ethics and all other works, apart from the Principles of Cartesian Philosophy and the Theologico-Political Treatise, were published after his death in the Opera Postuma edited by his friends in secrecy to avoid confiscation and destruction of manuscripts.

Later years

Spinoza relocated from Amsterdam to Rijnsburg (near Leiden) around 1661 and later lived in Voorburg and The Hague respectively. He earned a comfortable living from lens-grinding. While the lens-grinding aspect of Spinoza's work is uncontested, the type of lenses he made is in question. Many have said he produced excellent magnifying glasses, and some historians credit him with being an optician (in the sense of making lenses for eyeglasses). He was also supported by small, but regular, donations from close friends. He died in 1677 while still working on a political thesis. His premature death was due to a lung illness, possibly silicosis, the result of breathing in glass dust from the lenses he ground. Only a year earlier, Spinoza had met with Leibniz at The Hague for a discussion of his principal philosophical work, Ethics, which had been completed in 1676 (Lucas, 1960). Spinoza never married, nor did he father any children. When he died he was considered a heathen anti-religionist by the general population, and when Boerhaave wrote his dissertation in 1688 he attacked the doctrines of Spinoza. He claimed later that defense of Spinoza's lifestyle cost him his reputation in Leiden and a post as minister.