Ethics

Spinoza was born in 1632 in Amsterdam to Portuguese Jewish parents who had fled persecution in their native country. Spinoza attended Jewish schools and, in his early 20s, taught Sabbath school classes while following his father in the merchant trade. Around this time, in 1656, Jewish authorities charged him with “abominable heresies” and “monstrous deeds,” and excommunicated him from the synagogue. The details of the case are not known, but Spinoza may have encouraged his students to doubt the Bible’s historical accuracy, an idea that appears in his later writings. From this time on, Spinoza stopped using his Hebrew given name Baruch (“blessed”) and adopted the Latin equivalent Benedictus.

Separated from the Jewish community, Spinoza formed associations and friendships with members of nonconforming Christian groups, such as the Quakers, and developed his key philosophical ideas. He set forth many of his most controversial views in Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), which dealt principally with political freedom and issues of church and state. Spinoza anticipated the controversy the book would ignite and published it anonymously; however, many people were aware he was the author.

As his fame spread, Spinoza declined offers to live or teach abroad and instead settled in the Hague, making a living by crafting optical lenses. During the final portion of his brief life, he worked on his Ethics. In it he gave a definitive form to his ideas about God, human nature, and the ethical life, drawing on Jewish philosophical sources, Christian scholasticism, and ideas of the early scientific revolution. Spinoza died of lung disease in 1677 at age 44, partly the result of inhaling fine glass dust while grinding lenses.

At heart a rationalist—a thinker who holds that reason can explain all reality—Spinoza is considered one of the harbingers of modern thought about the universe, nature, and the self. During his lifetime, he was frequently dubbed an “atheist” because his impersonal idea of God differed from that of orthodox religious teaching. Yet in his own way, Spinoza was a deeply religious and ethical thinker, and his God-centered cosmos and his strong moral character endured as a source of inspiration to many.