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Except for Socrates himself, it would be difficult to find a philosopher who was
a more highly regarded person than Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza. Like Socrates, he
was not interested in power or wealth. Like Socrates, he was accused of atheism
and was hounded for his unorthodox beliefs. Like Socrates, he was interested in
philosophy as a way of life, not as a professional discipline.
Spinoza was born in Amsterdam, the son of Jewish refugees who had fled from
Portugal to escape persecution. As a young man, he was trained in Jewish tradi-
tion under a celebrated Talmudist, Saul Levi Morteira. He later studied with
Manasseh ben Israel, the man who persuaded Cromwell to allow Jews to return to
England, and with a Dutch physician, Franz van der Ende.
As a Jew, Spinoza was an outsider in Holland—not even entitled to citizenship
because of his faith. As an original thinker, Spinoza soon became an outsider
within the Jewish community as well. He was accused of heresy by the syna-
gogue of Amsterdam and required to disavow his teachings. Spinoza refused and
was officially excommunicated in 1656, when he was 23 years old. (In the twen-
tieth century, the new state of Israel formally revoked the ban.)
With no wish to join any other religious community, Spinoza left Amsterdam
and eventually settled in The Hague. He lived very simply, supporting himself by
grinding and polishing lenses, a craft he had adopted out of respect for the Jewish
tradition, which required scholars to learn a trade.
Spinoza published only two works during his lifetime. His first work was
Principles of Descartes’ Philosophy(1663), which critically examined the pre-
suppositions and structure of Descartes’ system. Using what later came to be
called “higher criticism,” his second book,Theological-Political Treatise(1670),
subjected Scripture to rational analysis. He concluded that the Bible does not aim
at truth but at pious and obedient behavior. Writing soon after the Thirty YearsBARUCH SPINOZA
1632–1677