Baruch
Spinoza was born in 1632 in Amsterdam. His name means “blessed” in all
translations. Baruch was born and raised in a Portuguese-Jewish community. He
was enrolled in Talmad Torah school as a young boy and was being prepared for a
career as a rabbi. He was on track for becoming a rabbi, when he had to drop
out to help his family’s business. Baruch quickly became a very influential
philosopher. He worked closely with the Enlightenment and his ideas were very
controversial. He denied the immortality of the soul, rejected a transcendent,
providential God and said that the Law was not given by God. He left his faith
and then left Amsterdam altogether.
His
most famous work was the Ethics. This
is a work that critiques traditional philosophy and conceptions of God. It also
challenged the traditional ideas of the human being, the universe and moral
beliefs. Spinoza wanted to lay out the truth in his work. He argued that human
happiness and well-being are found in the life of reason. After this, Spinoza
studied and wrote as a private scholar. Spinoza died in 1677 at age 44 from
tuberculosis or silicosis due to grinding lenses in his life. He is buried in a
churchyard in The Hague.
Sources:
Dutton, B. D. (n.d.).
Benedict De Spinoza (1632—1677). Retrieved from https://www.iep.utm.edu/spinoza/#H2
Nadler, S. (2016, July 04).
Baruch Spinoza. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/#Bib
No comments:
Post a Comment