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 11
... law respecting an establishment of religion . " Spinoza placed all his faith in the powers of reason , his own and ours . He enjoins us to join him in the religion of rea- son , and promises us some of the same benefits - while firmly ...
... law respecting an establishment of religion . " Spinoza placed all his faith in the powers of reason , his own and ours . He enjoins us to join him in the religion of rea- son , and promises us some of the same benefits - while firmly ...
Page 18
... Law . Cursed be he by day and cursed be he by night ; cursed be he when he lies down and cursed be he when he rises up . Cursed be he when he goes out and cursed be he when he comes in . The Lord will not spare him , but then the anger ...
... Law . Cursed be he by day and cursed be he by night ; cursed be he when he lies down and cursed be he when he rises up . Cursed be he when he goes out and cursed be he when he comes in . The Lord will not spare him , but then the anger ...
Page 22
... Law and flirts with girls . Baruch Spinoza , a bumulke . Mrs. Schoenfeld was a serious woman of middle age . At least I remember her as middle - aged . I was of an age when middle age might have meant late twenties . She wore matronly ...
... Law and flirts with girls . Baruch Spinoza , a bumulke . Mrs. Schoenfeld was a serious woman of middle age . At least I remember her as middle - aged . I was of an age when middle age might have meant late twenties . She wore matronly ...
Page 38
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Contents
3 | |
17 | |
The Project of Escape | 67 |
Identity Crisis | 124 |
Epilogue | 258 |
Chronology | 265 |
Notes | 273 |
Acknowledgments | 285 |
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