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Baruch Spinoza 1632 - 1677 Dutch Philosopher |
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Baruch Spinoza, philosopher and theologian, was born in Amster-dam.
His deep interest in optics, the new astronomy, and Cartesian philosophy
made him unpopular, and he was expelled from the Jewish community in 1656.
In 1673 he refused the professorship of philosophy at Heidelberg, in order to
keep his independence.
Spinoza ranks as a major thinker in the rationalist tradition, and his major works 'Tractatus theologico-politicus' (1670) and 'Ethics' (1677) are classics of Western philosophy.
Spinoza held that man's happiness
consists in coming to understand the truth that he is a tiny part of an all-inclusive
pantheistic God. |
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www link : From the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Biography |