Description
By (author) Israel, Jonathan I.
Short /annotation:
A biography of the boldest and most unsettling of the early modern philosophers, Spinoza, examining the man”s life, relationships, career, and writings, while forcing us to rethink how we previously understood his reception in the fields of philosophy, religion, ethics, and political theory in his own time and in the years following his death.
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A biography of the boldest and most unsettling of the early modern philosophers, Spinoza, which examines the man”s life, relationships, writings, and career, while also forcing us to rethink how we previously understood Spinoza”s reception in his own time and in the years following his death.The boldest and most unsettling of the major early modern philosophers, Spinoza, had a much greater, if often concealed, impact on the international intellectual scene and on the early Enlightenment than philosophers, historians, and political theorists have conventionally tended to recognize. Europe-wide efforts to prevent the reading public and university students learning about Spinoza, the man and his work, in the years immediately after his death in 1677, dominated much of his early reception owing to the revolutionary implications of his thought for philosophy, religion, practical ethics and lifestyle, Bible criticism, and political theory. Nevertheless, contrary to what has sometimes been maintained, his general impact was immediate, very widespread, and profound. One of the main objectives of the book is to show how early and how deeply Leibniz, Bayle, Arnauld, Henry More, Anne Conway, Richard Baxter, Robert Boyle, Henry Oldenburg, Pierre-Daniel Huet, Richard Simon, and Nicholas Steno, among many others, were affected by and led to wrestle with his principal ideas. There have been surprisingly few biographies of Spinoza, given his fundamental importance in intellectual history and history of philosophy, Bible criticism, and political thought. Jonathan I. Israel has written a biography which provides more detail and context about Spinoza”s life, family, writings, circle of friends, highly unusual career and networking, and early reception than its predecessors. Weaving the circumstances of his life and thought into a detailed biography has also led to several notable instances of nuancing or revising our notions of how to interpret certain of his assertions and philosophical claims, and how to understand the complex international reaction to his work during his life-time and in the years immediately following his death.
Table of contents:
Part I: Setting the Scene1: Introduction2: Unparalleled ChallengePart II: The Young Spinoza3: Youthful Rebel4: Secret Legacy from Portugal5: Childhood and Family Tradition6: Schooldays7: Honour and Wealth8: Teaching Skills: Van den Enden (1656-1661), Latin, and the Theatre9: Collegiants, Millenarians, and Quakers: the Mid- and Late 1650s10: ”Monstrous Heresies”: Ties with Marrano DeistsPart III: Reformer and Subverter of Descartes11: Forming a Study Group12: Rijnsburg Years (1661-63)13: Spinoza and the Scientific Revolution14: ”Reforming” Descartes” Principles15: Writing the Ethics16: Voorburg17: Spinoza and the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1664-1667)18: Invasion, Slump, and Comets (1665-66)19: Spinoza, Meyer, and The 1666 Philosophia Controversy20: From the Jaws of DefeatPart IV: Darkening Horizons21: The Tragedy of the Brothers Koerbagh (1668-1669)22: Nil Volentibus Arduum: Spinoza and the Arts23: Twilight of the ”True Freedom”24: Revolution in Bible Criticism25: Spinoza Subverts Hobbes26: Publishing the Theological-Political Treatise27: Intensifying Reaction (early 1670s)28: Spinoza”s Libertine ””French Circle”29: Reshaping the Republic: from Oligarchic to Democratic RepublicanismPart V: Last Years30: Disaster Year (1672)31: Denying the Supernatural32: Entering (or Not Entering) Princel
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