Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew who Gave Us ModernityPart of the Jewish Encounter series In 1656, Amsterdam's Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza, and, at the age of twenty-three, he became the most famous heretic in Judaism. He was already germinating a secularist challenge to religion that would be as radical as it was original. He went on to produce one of the most ambitious systems in the history of Western philosophy, so ahead of its time that scientists today, from string theorists to neurobiologists, count themselves among Spinoza's progeny. In Betraying Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein sets out to rediscover the flesh-and-blood man often hidden beneath the veneer of rigorous rationality, and to crack the mystery of the breach between the philosopher and his Jewish past. Goldstein argues that the trauma of the Inquisition' s persecution of its forced Jewish converts plays itself out in Spinoza's philosophy. The excommunicated Spinoza, no less than his excommunicators, was responding to Europe' s first experiment with racial anti-Semitism. Here is a Spinoza both hauntingly emblematic and deeply human, both heretic and hero--a surprisingly contemporary figure ripe for our own uncertain age. |
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Page 139
... live " like an ape among apes . " But sometimes , apparently , his mimicry fell short . A nephew who lived with him found his preparation of meat to be not in accord with Jewish ritual and told other family members , including the for ...
... live " like an ape among apes . " But sometimes , apparently , his mimicry fell short . A nephew who lived with him found his preparation of meat to be not in accord with Jewish ritual and told other family members , including the for ...
Page 222
... lives . Christiaan's father , who was Descartes ' friend , had called The Hague “ a village that knows no equal . " Heinrich Oldenburg , originally from Germany but now residing in London , has assumed the office of the secretary of the ...
... lives . Christiaan's father , who was Descartes ' friend , had called The Hague “ a village that knows no equal . " Heinrich Oldenburg , originally from Germany but now residing in London , has assumed the office of the secretary of the ...
Page 246
... lives , suf- fering linked with salvation , each implying the other ; other- wise how in God's name could the ... lives a misery . And so , too , men will through their blind bondage to their emotions compound the misery of their own ...
... lives , suf- fering linked with salvation , each implying the other ; other- wise how in God's name could the ... lives a misery . And so , too , men will through their blind bondage to their emotions compound the misery of their own ...
Contents
Baruch Bento Benedictus | 3 |
In Search of Baruch | 17 |
The Project of Escape | 67 |
Copyright | |
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Aboab argue Baruch Spinoza believe with perfect Benedictus Benedictus Spinoza born Catholic century chief rabbi Christian Church claim conceived continued conversos course death Descartes Deus sive natura divine Dutch Ein Sof emotions essence eternal Ethics excommunication existence experience explanations fact father final causes finite friends girls Ha-Shem halakha Hebrew heretic holy Ibid ideas infinite system Inquisition Israel Jan de Witt Jewish Jewish community Jewish identity Jews of Amsterdam Judaism kabbalah kabbalistic kherem knowledge laws Leibniz lived Lurianic Maimonides Marranos means Messiah metaphysics mind Moses Moslem mystical Nachmanides nature noza one's oneself perfect faith philosopher pleasure Portugal Portuguese proofs publish question Rabbi Morteira rational reality reason religion religious Rijnsburg Sabbatai Sabbatai Zevi salvation Schoenfeld scholar sense Sephardic soul Spain Spanish suffering synagogue Talmud teacher thing thinker thought tion Torah Tractatus Theologico-Politicus true truth understand Uriel da Costa Voorburg words write yeshiva young