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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 30
Page 41
... tion to him , Spinoza reportedly said to him , “ All the better ; they do not force me to do anything that I would not have done of my own accord if I did not dread scandal ; but , since they want it that way , I enter gladly on the ...
... tion to him , Spinoza reportedly said to him , “ All the better ; they do not force me to do anything that I would not have done of my own accord if I did not dread scandal ; but , since they want it that way , I enter gladly on the ...
Page 199
... tion to the 18 guilders required to be a member of Etz Chaim . Baruch returns to school for three more hours of instruc- tion , from two until five , and after that the schoolchildren go with their teachers , and the men of the ...
... tion to the 18 guilders required to be a member of Etz Chaim . Baruch returns to school for three more hours of instruc- tion , from two until five , and after that the schoolchildren go with their teachers , and the men of the ...
Page 200
... tion to instruct him , try to jam explanations into places that they can't go . Mostly , he holds his tongue and doesn't ques- tion . Derech eretz has been drilled into him since he was very young . But by fourteen , fifteen , he is too ...
... tion to instruct him , try to jam explanations into places that they can't go . Mostly , he holds his tongue and doesn't ques- tion . Derech eretz has been drilled into him since he was very young . But by fourteen , fifteen , he is too ...
Contents
Baruch Bento Benedictus | 3 |
In Search of Baruch | 17 |
The Project of Escape | 67 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
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