Baruch Spinoza(1632-1677)
- Writer
Spinoza also called himself Baruch de Spinoza as a Latinization of Benedictus. His father emigrated from Vidiguera, Portugal, to the Netherlands before the inquisitorial persecution of Spain at the end of the 16th century. Baruch Spinoza was accepted into the Jewish community "Ets Haim," or "Tree of Life," at the age of five. He attended the Talmud Torah school and came into contact with Jewish doctrine and scholasticism. He also learned Hebrew there. Baruch Spinoza's half-brother died in 1649. From this time on he worked as a businessman in his father's business. At the same time he educated himself through studies.
Spinoza studied the works of René Descartes, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, Giordano Bruno and Thomas Campanella, which greatly influenced his thinking. As a result, he first gradually moved away from his Jewish faith, but then more and more rigorously. In his critical view of the Jewish faith, he developed a concrete doubt about it. Spinoza's criticism led to his expulsion from the Jewish community in 1656. Spinoza further developed his criticism in his major work "Ethics," published in 1667. In this he was strongly based on Descartes' method, in which truth can only be found through mathematical thinking. Because of his exclusion from the community, Spinoza had to give up his business due to economic hardship.
Spinoza then worked as a grinder of optical glasses. From 1661 to 1663 he lived in Rijnsburg, where his first writings were written. His themes are already laid out there, which he then worked on using mathematical methodology in his main work. During this time, the fragmentary work entitled "Treatise on the Perfection of the Understanding" was also written, but it was not published until the year of his death, 1677. In 1663 Spinoza left Rijnsburg and moved to Voorburg. The work on "ethics" began there. He also commented on current intellectual events. Spinoza used the conflict between the Calvinists and the liberal supporters of the later murdered Dutch politician Jan de Witt to publicize his views on tolerance in religion and politics. In 1669 he moved to The Hague.
His "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus" was published there in 1670, but was banned four years later. In 1673 he rejected the appointment to a professorship in philosophy at the University of Heidelberg by the Elector of the Palatinate Karl Ludwig. Spinoza wanted to remain independent in his opinion. According to Spinoza, knowledge of the order and laws of nature leads to one's own happiness. And the higher this knowledge is, the higher the happiness, because then the person knows best what is good for him. Nothing exists in nature that contradicts its laws. Certain causes also have certain effects, which are produced in a fixed chain. This is also what happens to the soul, which, when it recognizes a thing, continuously produces effects in an objective manner.
For Spinoza, the soul belongs to nature, which is revealed to man in expansion and thought. Nature is therefore matter and spirit at the same time. All things in the world, all ideas, are modifications of a single substance which is eternal and infinite. There is no being beyond this substance. Spinoza equates this substance with God. For him, nature can be equated with God, who thereby becomes perceptible and is no longer a transcendent being. For him this means that if people recognize as many individual things as possible, the more they will recognize God. The higher the knowledge, the higher the affection for God, which is the source of human happiness. Spinoza teaches a strict determinism to which humans are exposed. Man's apparent freedom consists of his ignorance of this determinism.
Spinoza's teaching was initially controversial and met with little approval. General interest in it grew as part of a conflict between the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and Moses Mendelssohn over Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's views on Spinoza. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Herder contributed to the dissemination and high level of acceptance.
Spinoza studied the works of René Descartes, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, Giordano Bruno and Thomas Campanella, which greatly influenced his thinking. As a result, he first gradually moved away from his Jewish faith, but then more and more rigorously. In his critical view of the Jewish faith, he developed a concrete doubt about it. Spinoza's criticism led to his expulsion from the Jewish community in 1656. Spinoza further developed his criticism in his major work "Ethics," published in 1667. In this he was strongly based on Descartes' method, in which truth can only be found through mathematical thinking. Because of his exclusion from the community, Spinoza had to give up his business due to economic hardship.
Spinoza then worked as a grinder of optical glasses. From 1661 to 1663 he lived in Rijnsburg, where his first writings were written. His themes are already laid out there, which he then worked on using mathematical methodology in his main work. During this time, the fragmentary work entitled "Treatise on the Perfection of the Understanding" was also written, but it was not published until the year of his death, 1677. In 1663 Spinoza left Rijnsburg and moved to Voorburg. The work on "ethics" began there. He also commented on current intellectual events. Spinoza used the conflict between the Calvinists and the liberal supporters of the later murdered Dutch politician Jan de Witt to publicize his views on tolerance in religion and politics. In 1669 he moved to The Hague.
His "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus" was published there in 1670, but was banned four years later. In 1673 he rejected the appointment to a professorship in philosophy at the University of Heidelberg by the Elector of the Palatinate Karl Ludwig. Spinoza wanted to remain independent in his opinion. According to Spinoza, knowledge of the order and laws of nature leads to one's own happiness. And the higher this knowledge is, the higher the happiness, because then the person knows best what is good for him. Nothing exists in nature that contradicts its laws. Certain causes also have certain effects, which are produced in a fixed chain. This is also what happens to the soul, which, when it recognizes a thing, continuously produces effects in an objective manner.
For Spinoza, the soul belongs to nature, which is revealed to man in expansion and thought. Nature is therefore matter and spirit at the same time. All things in the world, all ideas, are modifications of a single substance which is eternal and infinite. There is no being beyond this substance. Spinoza equates this substance with God. For him, nature can be equated with God, who thereby becomes perceptible and is no longer a transcendent being. For him this means that if people recognize as many individual things as possible, the more they will recognize God. The higher the knowledge, the higher the affection for God, which is the source of human happiness. Spinoza teaches a strict determinism to which humans are exposed. Man's apparent freedom consists of his ignorance of this determinism.
Spinoza's teaching was initially controversial and met with little approval. General interest in it grew as part of a conflict between the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and Moses Mendelssohn over Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's views on Spinoza. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Herder contributed to the dissemination and high level of acceptance.
