Jewish Philosopher Baruch Spinoza

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Baruch Spinoza, the first Jewish pantheist, rejected the monopoly held by the clergy over the political power in the Jewish community, was a champion of intellectual freedom and had followers including members of the Islamic community. The author points out that Spinoza was one of the first philosophers to marry Jewish thought with the emerging ideas of the Enlightenment and was more receptive to contemporary Western thought than any Jewish philosopher since Maimonides. The paper relates that Spinoza went to Constantinople, where Jews were emancipated; the community in Constantinople contributed to Spinoza's ideas of intellectual freedom and, in 1664, Spinoza published the "Treatise on God, Man and his Well-Being" marrying Jewish scripture to contemporary philosophy.

From the Paper:

"However controversial, Spinoza's viewpoint on God was not unprecedented. Spinoza's version of God was firmly planted in Mediaeval Jewish mysticism, which was closely allied to the Neo-Platonic philosophical tradition of Late Antiquity, as it had been developed during the 9th Century intellectual development of Islam. "The fundamental thing to keep in mind when thinking about Spinoza is one simple, striking, and paradoxical proposition: God is the only thing that exists." The idea is not that God is everything, but that nothing can exist independently from God. While reductionists may want to claim Spinoza as their own, Spinoza envisioned a thinking God. In addition, "although Spinoza was condemned by his community for the heresy of saying that God has a body," he actually believed that God was much more than a body."

More papers on Jewish Philosopher Baruch Spinoza:

• Research Paper # 25431 : "The Excommunication of Spinoza"
• Comparison Essay # 27542 : "Leibniz and Spinoza"
• Analytical Essay # 26715 : "The Nature of Substances: Spinoza vs. Leibniz"

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