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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Results 6-10 of 61
Page 7
... religion .... So you see , most Honorable Sir , that my reluctance is not due to the hope of some better for- tune , but to my love of peace , which I believe I can enjoy in some measure if I refrain from lecturing in public . " Some ...
... religion .... So you see , most Honorable Sir , that my reluctance is not due to the hope of some better for- tune , but to my love of peace , which I believe I can enjoy in some measure if I refrain from lecturing in public . " Some ...
Page 11
... religious dogma could not speak more pertinently to some of the raging controversies of our day , including the ... religion . " Spinoza placed all his faith in the powers of reason , his own and ours . He enjoins us to join him in the ...
... religious dogma could not speak more pertinently to some of the raging controversies of our day , including the ... religion . " Spinoza placed all his faith in the powers of reason , his own and ours . He enjoins us to join him in the ...
Page 12
... religious identity to aim to be perceived as neither Jew , nor Chris- tian , nor Moslem - was all but unthinkable ; and , in fact , Spinoza did continue to be called , with predictable disdain , a Jew . Huygens , for example , never ...
... religious identity to aim to be perceived as neither Jew , nor Chris- tian , nor Moslem - was all but unthinkable ; and , in fact , Spinoza did continue to be called , with predictable disdain , a Jew . Huygens , for example , never ...
Page 13
... religion " and " piety , " both of which he nonhypocritically endorses . The terms of his excommunication were the harshest imposed by his community , uncharacteristically including no possibility for reconciliation or redemption ...
... religion " and " piety , " both of which he nonhypocritically endorses . The terms of his excommunication were the harshest imposed by his community , uncharacteristically including no possibility for reconciliation or redemption ...
Page 15
... religions distinguish themselves from one another by declaring their own adherents the favored of God . All such confusions are relegated by Spinoza to the status of superstitions , including any and all differ- ence to which Jews may ...
... religions distinguish themselves from one another by declaring their own adherents the favored of God . All such confusions are relegated by Spinoza to the status of superstitions , including any and all differ- ence to which Jews may ...
Contents
3 | |
17 | |
The Project of Escape | 67 |
Identity Crisis | 124 |
Epilogue | 258 |
Chronology | 265 |
Notes | 273 |
Acknowledgments | 285 |
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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 explain 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 lives Lurianic Maimonides Marranos means Messiah metaphysics mind Moses Moslem mystical Nachmanides nature noza one's oneself perfect faith personal identity philosopher pleasure Portugal Portuguese proofs publish question Rabbi Morteira rational reality reason religion religious Rijnsburg Sabbatai Zevi salvation Schoenfeld scholar sense Sephardic soul Spain Spanish suffering synagogue Talmud teacher thing thinker thought tion Torah true truth understand Uriel da Costa Voorburg words write yeshiva young