Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (Baruch Spinoza), own name: d'Espinosa. Benedict Spinoza Baruch Spinoza Key Ideas

Baruch (Benedict) de Spinoza, the second son of Miguel de Espinosa and Ana Deborah, was born in Amsterdam. His father was a Portuguese Jew who traded in sheep's wool, whose merchant business prospered. The mother died when the boy was only six years old.

The young Spinoza excels at learning languages: Portuguese, Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, French and Latin. Elementary education Spinoza, brought up in the best Jewish traditions, receives in the yeshiva, diligently studying the canons of the Crowns of the Torah.

The boy studied both with teachers - supporters of traditional views, and with progressive-minded teachers, and therefore had a multifaceted thinking. At school, Spinoza shone with talents, having all the necessary virtues in order to become a rabbi in the future. However, the premature, tragic death of his elder brother in 1650 forced him to leave his studies and take up the family business.

Scientific activity

In 1653, Spinoza began to study the Latin language under the guidance of Francis van der Ende, a freethinker who opened the doors to the boy in new world scholastics and modern philosophy.

After his father's death in 1654, Spinoza spends eleven months reciting the Kaddish, the Jewish mourners' prayer. He renounces his inheritance in favor of his sister Rebecca.

For some time, Spinoza was involved in the family business of importing wool to Holland, which, however, faced significant financial difficulties during the First Anglo-Dutch War. In an effort to get rid of creditors, Spinoza declares himself disinherited and retires.

After that, he inherits his mother's estate, and once and for all devotes himself to philosophy and optics.

He takes a Latin name for himself, Benedict de Spinoza, and teaches. Here begins an important stage in his life, since it was at this time that Spinoza, thanks to his connections with the anti-clerical sect of the Remonstrants, became acquainted with rationalism.

Spinoza closely follows how a number of anti-church groups rebel against generally accepted dogmas. This is a new direction philosophical thought forms his own ideology, which was the cause of strife between him and the authorities, as well as representatives of traditional philosophy.

Increasingly, he opposes traditionalism, and in 1656, fearing that the Jewish community of Amsterdam could be persecuted for being associated with him, representatives of the religious school of the Talmud Torah imposed a ban on educational activities Spinoza for preaching radical theology.

However, this news not only did not embarrass the philosopher, but was received by him with great relief, since radical views had long led him to think about the need to separate from the congregation of the Talmud Torah.

Spinoza no longer attends the synagogue and eventually expresses a feeling of deep disgust and antagonism towards Judaism. It is believed that he later made an "apology" to the elders of this church, in which he defended his position against the orthodox religion. However, some researchers believe that no apologies were made at all.

Rumors that, after being expelled from the Jewish Church, Spinoza converted to Christianity have little basis, but he retains the Latin name for himself. Despite the fact that Spinoza has close ties with the Christian community and even lives in a collegiate settlement, he will never accept baptism, and therefore becomes the first secular Jew of contemporary Europe.

Following the ban and expulsion from Amsterdam, Spinoza lives for some time in the village of Uderkerk aan de Amstel, but soon returns to the city. During his stay in Amsterdam, he took private lessons in philosophy and diligently studied the structure of lenses.

Somewhere between 1660-1661. Spinoza leaves the city forever and goes to live in Ridgesburg in the community of Leiden. It is here that his most significant works will appear.

In 1663, Spinoza writes one of the main works of his life, "A Treatise on God, Man and His Welfare." This treatise was a desire to convey to the world his views on metaphysics, epistemology and morality.

At the same time, he is working on writing his interpretation of the works of Descartes "Fundamentals of Philosophy", which he will finish everything in the same 1663. This interpretation will be the only work published under his name in his entire life. In the same year, Spinoza moved to Voorburg.

His meetings with various scientists, philosophers and theologians, which took place in this city, will form the basis of the new work "Ethics". To earn a living, Spinoza works in a lens shop.

At the same time, he was working on his Theological-Political Treatise in Defense of Secular and Constitutional Authorities, which would be published anonymously in 1670. The scandalous work caused an uproar in society and was officially banned in 1674.

In 1670 Spinoza moved to The Hague. Here he is working on writing the "Political Treatise", as well as a number of other works, including the "Treatise on the Rainbow" and scientific notes "On the Calculation of Probability". In addition, Spinoza continues to work on work in Hebrew, and also takes on the Dutch translation of the Bible, which he himself will soon destroy.

Spinoza completed his masterpiece Ethics in 1676. In this work, he ruthlessly criticizes traditional beliefs and philosophical concepts God human being, nature and the universe as a whole. He destroys religious, theological and moral foundations to smithereens. The paradox is that it is in this work that Spinoza proclaims that God is the world, identifying God with nature.

Personal life and legacy

After Spinoza, having adopted a Latin name, begins to teach at the school, he first develops romantic feelings for the daughter of the teacher of the same school, Clara. However, his love was unrequited, and soon the girl rejects him for the sake of a richer and more successful man.

In 1676 Spinoza's health deteriorated, and, throughout the year, his condition would only worsen. On February 21, 1677, due to a lung disease acquired in the process of harmful work in a lens-grinding workshop, Spinoza's heart stopped. He was buried in the church cemetery at New christian church in The Hague.

According to his will, "Ethics", along with his other works, was published posthumously in 1677. The work of his life, "Ethics", consisted of five sections: "On God", "The Nature and Origins of Human Thought", "Nature and the Beginning of Emotions”, “Fetters that Bind Man, or the Power of Emotions” and “The Power of Understanding, or the Freedom of Man”.

The Dutch philosopher Spinoza was a radical thinker whose posthumously published Ethics revolutionized philosophical thought and made him the greatest rationalist of the 17th century.

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Rationalism developed by Descartes, although it caused objections from the sensualists, was further developed in the works of the most prominent philosophers of that time, for example, B. Spinoza (1632 - 1677) - the Dutch philosopher. It must be said that Spinoza lived and worked in a rather fertile period for the Netherlands, the period of strengthening the bourgeois republic with a focus on individual freedom, freedom of enterprise, and scientific research.

He could base his ideas on the achievements of specific scientific disciplines, especially in mathematics and mechanics, physics, so his teaching was progressive in nature, meeting the needs of the middle of the XVII century.

Like F. Bacon and R. Descartes, Spinoza defended and developed A New Look philosophy, knowledge. He believed that philosophy should increase the power of man over nature in order to "higher human perfection." The main means of achieving the goal he put forward mechanics, medicine and especially "moral philosophy", in the development of which he saw his main role.

Exploring questions of ethics, Spinoza sought to determine the place of man, both in nature and in society and the state. From this follows his deep interest in the general philosophical problems of being and cognition, as well as in the problems of society and the state.

The most famous and main work of Spinoza is "Ethics", which outlines the main ideas of his teaching. Like Descartes, Spinoza sought to build a philosophy on the basis of unconditionally reliable starting points. He saw an example of reliability and rigorous evidence in geometry with its axioms and rigorous deduction of theorems. That is why Spinoza expounded the Ethics by the so-called geometric method. At the beginning of the work, definitions are stated, then axioms are formulated, and then theorems are proved on the basis of these definitions and axioms. At the same time, axioms are treated as propositions, the truth of which is seen intuitively. All other truths follow from the axioms and definitions as from their logical basis.

Ontology Spinoza is connected, first of all, with the doctrine of substance. He argued that there is only one substance - nature, which is the cause of itself - "causa sui", i.e. needing nothing else for its existence. Nature, on the one hand, is "creative nature" - "natura naturans", and on the other - "created nature", or "natura naturata". As "creating nature," it is a substance, or, what is the same, according to Spinoza, God. Identifying God and nature, he carries out the idea pantheism. Nature is eternal and infinite, it is both cause and effect, and essence, and existence. The difference between essence and existence is that in individual things, transient, finite, essence does not coincide with their existence, but in a single, eternal and infinite substance, its existence necessarily follows from its essence. Therefore, the existence of God or substance can be proved, i.e. the existence of God can be deduced from the concept of the essence of God - nature. The being of a substance is both necessary and free at the same time, since there is no cause that would impel a substance to action, except for its own essence. A single thing does not follow from substance as from its proximate cause, it can only follow from another finite thing. Therefore, every single thing does not have freedom.

In essence, Spinoza singles out two natures: the creative nature and the created nature. The first nature is substance, it is unchanging and infinite. He named its main attributes "prevalence" and "thinking", although he said that the number of attributes is infinite. The second nature, created, is described as the world of finite things, or, according to Spinoza, modes. It is finite, subject to change, movement within the framework of space and time. Modes are related to a single substance in the same way that innumerable points lying on a line are related to the line itself.

From the concept of substance as infinite and indivisible, Spinoza builds the concept of determinism. Substance is internally necessary, therefore nothing accidental happens in the substance, because God is not the external, but the immanent cause of all things. Everything has a cause, only a substance has a cause in itself. Thus singular things have a cause. But Spinoza interprets determinism mechanistically. He derives an explanation of the universal causal connection from the presence of an infinite mode of movement (movement is inherent in all modes, and their number is infinite), but movement, in his understanding, is not an attribute of a substance, thus it is divorced from it. Metaphysics and mechanism are also inherent in his understanding of essence, which he considers as some kind of unchanging internal property that only posits the existence of a particular thing, and by no means denies it. Therefore, the essence does not contain internal contradictions that would determine the existence of a thing, and these contradictions are completely transferred to the external determination of things by each other. The same approach can be seen in Spinoza's interpretation of causality, which he identified with necessity, while he saw chance only as a subjective category. Spinoza's ideas resulted in mechanical fatalism: the whole world is a mathematical system and can be fully known geometrically.

Epistemology Spinoza was based on rationalism. He singled out several forms of cognition and knowledge. The lowest level of knowledge is knowledge based on imagination. These are representations based on sensory perceptions of the external world. However, sensory experience is disordered, therefore knowledge is vague, false. The second, higher level of cognition is formed by knowledge based on the mind. In this kind the knowledge of truth is inferred by means of proof. The advantage of knowledge based on the mind is its certainty, as well as the clarity and distinctness of the truths obtained with its help. But it is limited, because is indirect. The third and highest kind of knowledge is knowledge, also based on the mind, but not mediated by proof. These are truths seen in intuition, i.e. direct contemplation of the mind. They are distinguished by the greatest clarity and distinctness. So, the first kind of knowledge is sensual, the second and third are intellectual. Thus, speaking from the standpoint of rationalism, Spinoza belittled the role sensory knowledge and the role of experience. He denied experience the ability to give reliable knowledge. In this respect, the rationalism of Spinoza is more pronounced than the rationalism of Descartes.

The correct method of cognition, according to Spinoza, is based precisely on the ability of the human soul to adequate cognition. This possibility is due to the fact that all things, both as a whole and in their individual parts, have something in common. The general bodily world has its correspondence in the human soul in the form of adequate ideas that are common to all people. Adequate ideas Spinoza called general concepts, which differ from sensual, imaginative ideas in that they relate to the mechanical and geometric properties of bodies, i.e. to their true, "primary" qualities, while the concepts of imagination (imagination) express only our sensual attitude towards them.

Spinoza's rationalism is characterized by the assertion that, although adequate ideas are a reflection of the true properties of the external world, nevertheless, being considered "in themselves", without relating them to external objects, they have "internal signs" of their truth. To have an adequate idea, from this point of view, means to be sure of its truth. This is a typically rationalistic, Cartesian criterion of clarity and evidence as the main criterion of truth. Such a criterion establishes an impenetrable metaphysical line between reliable knowledge, the prototype of which was mathematical knowledge, and probable knowledge, having an experimental, sensual origin. This criterion is met general concepts as concepts of the mind.

Spinoza's doctrine of cognition is inextricably linked with his doctrine of affects, human experiences. It allows a deeper understanding of man in the view of Spinoza, especially in his ethical part. He proceeds from the fact that man is a part of nature, subject to its order, since he is only a mode among other modes. But this is a special mode. In human behavior, the second attribute of substance is most clearly manifested - thinking. Man is one of the most complex bodies. The complexity of the human organism is the result of the activity of the human soul, which, according to Spinoza, is not some kind of special entity that is completely different from the body. The soul is a set of mental abilities of a person, one of the modes of the attribute of thinking. human soul- only one of the modes of the attribute of thinking, a particle of the "infinite mind of God", embodied in the mind, i.e. in the capacity for rationality, logical thinking. Solving the question of the relationship between the soul and the body, Spinoza argued that "neither the body can determine the soul to thinking, nor the soul can determine the body either to movement, or to rest, or to anything else." These words give reason to define his point of view as psychophysical parallelism, which considers mental and physiological phenomena as two independent parallel series, although they are in accordance with each other, but are not causally related.

Human activity, like that of any mode, is absolutely predetermined by the totality of world connections that form strong and unchanging laws. Therefore, in relation to man, Spinoza considered in principle possible such a universal mathematical knowledge that would explain the existence and activity of each individual individual. However, in his ethical doctrine, he did not reject the possibility of human freedom. Spinoza separated this question from the question of free will, rejecting the idealistic teaching. According to him, human nature is inherent common feature- its dependence on passions, or affects. Solving the problem of freedom, he compares it with necessity. A thing that necessarily exists can at the same time be free if it exists by the necessity of its own nature alone. In this sense, firstly, the substance - nature is free, since its existence is conditioned only by its own essence. Secondly, in this sense man is also free. If in the fourth part of the "Ethics" Spinoza speaks of the slavery of man, i.e. about its dependence on affects, then in its fifth part, Spinoza shows under what conditions a person can get out of this slavery and in what sense he can become free. Every affect, that is, a passive state, ceases to be passive as soon as we form a clear and distinct idea about it, otherwise we know it. Freedom is the knowledge of necessity, that is, a clear and distinct idea of ​​what is necessary. Although knowledge as such is powerless against affects, it can itself become an affect. Joy, accompanied by the idea of ​​its external cause, is nothing but the affect of love. A special kind of love is the love of knowledge. Having evoked the affect of such love, knowledge can come into conflict with other affects and overcome them. Thus, it can lead a person to greatest freedom. Consequently, freedom for him is only the dominance of reason over feelings, overcoming sensual affects with a passion for knowledge. Such an understanding of freedom is abstract, anti-historical, divorced from the diverse content of social life.

The significance of the work of B. Spinoza consisted, first of all, in overcoming the dualism of Descartes. A significant role in his time was played by his pantheism of an atheistic orientation. Socio - political views of Spinoza contributed to the development of natural - legal and contractual concepts of the emergence of society.

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(born Baruch Spinoza, Hebrew ברוך שפינוזה‎; Lat. Benedictus de Spinoza; November 24, 1632, Amsterdam - February 21, 1677, The Hague) - Dutch philosopher. One of the main representatives of the philosophy of modern times, a rationalist. Baruch de Spinoza was born into a family of Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors settled in Amsterdam after being expelled from Portugal. In the Michael family

short biography

(born Baruch Spinoza, Hebrew ברוך שפינוזה‎; Lat. Benedictus de Spinoza; November 24, 1632, Amsterdam - February 21, 1677, The Hague) - Dutch philosopher. One of the main representatives of the philosophy of modern times, a rationalist. Baruch de Spinoza was born into a family of Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors settled in Amsterdam after being expelled from Portugal. The family of Michael (Gabriel Alvarez) and Hanna Deborah de Spinoza had five children: Isaac, Rebecca (both from Michael's first marriage), Miriam, Baruch and Gabriel. His mother died of tuberculosis very early - in 1638, when Baruch was only 6 years old. The father (until his death in 1654) runs a prosperous family firm selling southern fruits. Spinoza attends the elementary religious school "Etz Chaim", where he studies Hebrew, the Torah with Rashi's commentary, the Talmud and other rabbinic literature, as well as the basics of Jewish theology and rhetoric. Already here he gets acquainted with the works of Averroes and Aristotle in the medieval interpretation of Maimonides (1135-1204). Later he takes Latin lessons. Spinoza spoke Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and a little French and Italian, and was fluent in literary Hebrew; the spoken language in the family was probably Ladino.
Spinoza's teachers were rabbis - the Kabbalist philosopher Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, Menashe ben Yisrael and Saul Mortera. They improved his intellect and especially the ability of analytical evidence-based reasoning. Goethe believed that Spinoza, thanks to mathematical and ancient rabbinical culture, rose to the pinnacle of thinking, which to this day is the goal of all speculative aspirations.
Spinoza was familiar with the works of such philosophers as Abraham ibn Ezra and Maimonides, Gersonides, as well as with the treatise The Light of the Lord (Or Adonai) by Hasdai Crescas. He was particularly influenced by the book Puerta del Cielo (The Gates of Heaven) by the cabalist Abraham Cohen Herrera, who lived in Amsterdam and died when Spinoza was very young. To these authors it is necessary to add Leon Ebreo (that is, Yehuda Abarbanel with his "Dialogues about Love" ("Dialoghi d "Amore"), al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes. S. Dunin-Barkovsky also pointed out the existing connection between the "strange" , as he put it, the work of Ibn Tufayl "Hayy ibn Yaqzan" and the concept of Spinoza.
After the death of their father, Baruch and his brother Gabriel take over the management of the firm. Spinoza's statements of "unorthodox" views, his rapprochement with sectarians (colleagues, a trend in Protestantism) and the actual departure from Judaism soon lead to accusations of heresy and exclusion from the Jewish community (Cherem 1656).
Spinoza takes the name Benedict (a diminutive of Bento), sells his share in the company to his brother and leaves for the suburb of Amsterdam, Overkerk. However, he soon returns and (while he is still allowed to stay in Amsterdam) enters the private college of the ex-Jesuit "jolly doctor" van den Enden, where he improves Latin, teaches Greek, philosophy (Greek and new, including Hobbes, Gassendi, Machiavelli , possibly Giordano Bruno), natural sciences, learns to draw and polish optical glasses (he teaches Hebrew). Here he gets acquainted with the works of Rene Descartes (1596-1650), which will expand the horizon of his creative activity, but will not affect his "true faith" (as he speaks of philosophical views). Although Descartes lived in Amsterdam for a long time, it seems that he and Spinoza never met - Spinoza was then too young.
Bento is surrounded by a circle of devoted friends and students - Simon Joosten de Vries, Jarig Jelles, Pieter Balling, Lodewijk Meyer, Jan Rieuwertsz, von Schuller (von Schuller), Adriaan Kurbach (Adriaan Koerbagh), Johannes Kurbach (Johannes Koerbagh), Johannes Baumester (Johannes Bouwmeester) and others.
In 1660, the Amsterdam synagogue officially asks the municipal authorities to condemn Spinoza as a "threat to piety and morality", and the latter is forced to leave Amsterdam, settling in Rijnsburg (at that time the center of colleagues) - a village near Leiden. Grinding lenses gives him enough income to live on. Here he writes " Short treatise about God, Man and His Happiness", "A Treatise on the Improvement of Reason", most of the "Foundations of the Philosophy of Descartes" and the first book of "Ethics". From time to time, students from nearby Leiden visit him. In 1661, Spinoza was visited by one of the chairmen of the Royal Scientific Society of London, Heinrich Oldenburg, with whom the correspondence continued for many years.
In June 1663, Spinoza moved to Vorburg, near The Hague, where he met the physicist and mathematician Christian Huygens, the philologist Vossius. In 1664 he published in The Hague "Fundamentals of the Philosophy of Descartes" (the only work published under Spinoza's own name during his lifetime) together with "Metaphysical Meditations". Published anonymously in Amsterdam, the Theologo-Political Treatise (1670) creates a strong opinion of Spinoza as an atheist. Spinoza was saved from serious persecution by the fact that the de Witt brothers stood at the head of the state, favorably treating the philosopher (Jan de Witt was a Cartesian). In parallel with the treatise (and in many respects for it), he writes the Hebrew Grammar.
In May 1670, Spinoza moved to The Hague (from 1671 he lives in a house on the Paviljoensgracht canal; now this house has the Latin name Domus Spinozana), where he remains until his death. In 1673, Spinoza refuses the invitation of the Elector of the Palatinate to take the chair of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, arguing that he is afraid of losing freedom in expressing thoughts. In 1675, he completes the Ethics, a work that contains in a systematic form all the main provisions of his philosophy, but after the de Witt brothers “lost power” in 1672 (they were killed as a result of a coup d'état), he does not dare to publish it, although handwritten copies go to the circle of closest friends. In 1675, Spinoza met the German mathematician E. W. von Tschirnhaus, and in 1676, G. W. Leibniz, who stayed in The Hague, visited Spinoza several times, and in his correspondence Leibniz subsequently hurried to show an extreme degree of negative attitude towards the Jews, mocking the pronounced Jewish Spinoza's appearance.
On Sunday, February 21, 1677, Spinoza dies of tuberculosis (a disease that he suffered for 20 years, involuntarily exacerbating it by inhaling dust when grinding optical lenses, smoking - tobacco was then considered a remedy), he was only 44 years old. The body is preliminarily buried on February 25 and is soon reburied in a common grave. An inventory is made of the property (which includes 161 books) and it is sold, part of the documents (including part of the correspondence) is destroyed. Spinoza's works, in accordance with his desire, are published in the same year in Amsterdam Rieuwertsz with a preface by Helles, without indicating the place of publication and the name of the author under the title B. d. S. Opera Posthuma (in Latin), in 1678 - in the Dutch translation (Nagelate Schriften). In the same year, 1678, all the works of Spinoza were banned.

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Baruch De Spinoza

Benedict ( Baruch)Spinoza (1632-1677 )

At the time of Rembrandt, there lived in Amsterdam a modest and polite young man who studied Talmudic law and Holy Bible. At the age of twenty-four, he challenged his fellow tribesmen to such an extent that he was severely punished, excommunicated from the faith, and expelled from the community.

Baruch de Spinoza was the son of prosperous Portuguese immigrants who had fled the religious and political persecution of the Inquisition for safe and free Holland. These Portuguese Jews hid their religion in their homeland, converted to Catholicism, but secretly professed Judaism. Spinoza witnessed the conflict between the newly arrived "converts" and the Talmudic Jews who had lived in Amsterdam for centuries. But besides all this free society made it possible to receive a secular education. Young Baruch studied not only classical literature and philosophy, but also Latin and - worst of all - New Testament taught by a former Jesuit priest.

While still a young student, Baruch became a member of a circle of radical philosophers and at the same time studied the grinding of optical lenses. He was distinguished by a slightly melancholy, but surprisingly even character - he was never in a hurry to answer in a fit of anger.

It is not entirely clear how he got into a dispute with the Jewish community. Be that as it may, he was accused of denying the existence of angels, the God-centeredness of the Bible, and the immortality of the soul. The text of the official document on excommunication has survived to this day. His evil character testifies with all obviousness that Spinoza was doomed to eternal torment. He was expelled from the community and even threatened with death. Ironically, the Portuguese and Spanish refugees, who had settled into a fairly secure bourgeois existence in Amsterdam, had their own inquisition.

Baruch ("blessed" in Hebrew) changed his name to the Latin equivalent - Benedict, and after a short trip settled in The Hague. In addition to a small state pension and an annual allowance provided by his friend, Spinoza lived off his craft - grinding lenses. He invariably rejected all other offers of help, including a professorship at the prestigious University of Heidelberg. He preferred a harsh and ascetic life and downright monastic robes of a poor hard worker. Spinoza died alone at the age of forty-four from a lung disease caused by constant inhalation of toxic dust from glass grinding.

Despite living in obscurity, Spinoza is recognized as one of the key figures in the history of philosophy. Despite his excommunication, many philosophers rightly called him a drugged God. Despite his denial of the original divine origin of the Bible, Spinoza is widely recognized as the first modern Bible critic. And, in spite of his reverence for reason, his work revealed the pernicious irrationality of many of the great philosophers and writers who followed him.

Spinoza's philosophy was reflected in the theological and political study "Theological-Political Treatise" (the only book published during his lifetime) and in "Ethics". He was certainly influenced by the rationalistic teachings of Maimonides, but his work is also marked by the anti-rationalism of Jewish mystics or occultists. This combination of rationality and "unreasonableness" took his philosophical research far beyond the Jewish tradition.

Spinoza believed in the resolution of disputes through reason, but did not have faith - like Maimonides - in the coming of the Messiah through strict observance of God's law. Spinoza rather called for the rejection of religious writings as useless and artificial. Only with the help of pure reason can curb human passions. And Spinoza was looking for a recipe to cure what he perceived as a disease of the senses. Sin is not a product of evil, but of ignorance. Suffering is not an isolated fact, but part of an infinitely larger and indifferent whole. If only a person recognizes himself as a part of unchanging nature and God (Spinoza identified nature and God), then hatred and pity, anxiety and grief, anger and deceit will disappear.

God is not only everything (pantheism), God is present in every mode of life. Nothing is left to chance. There is no absolute freedom of the human will. If only we understand this, we will be freed. Following Spinoza, Albert Einstein allegedly said that "God does not play dice."

In the Ethics, Spinoza used Euclidean geometry as the main proof of the inevitability of his philosophy. Not only did God predestinate everything, but Spinoza's use of geometric progressions presented his philosophy as immutable and absolute.

Spinoza's approach to biblical analysis revolutionized the way people view religious tradition. His rational treatment of biblical episodes in their historical context put at risk the sometimes superstitious and complex commentaries on Talmudic dogmas. Spinoza's ruthless remarks during the French Enlightenment in the 18th century. allowed Voltaire and his comrades to ridicule Christianity and what they considered a caricature of him - Judaism. By showing that the Bible is not an accurate reflection of history, his method undermined the foundations of organized religion forever and caused long-term and deadly consequences for the Jewish community.

Modern philosophy rejects much of Spinoza's teaching, although it continues to be in awe of him. Each new generation finds in his legacy something of itself. German romantics of the early 19th century. attributed their own vision of the world to Spinoza. The great poet Goethe considered the legacy of Spinoza essential to understanding the cosmos. In the XX century. the eminent English philosopher Bertrand Russell found weakness in the ideas of Spinoza, preferring the one characteristic of his time scientific point the view that facts are fully revealed by observation and not by reasoning. Yet Russell loved Spinoza with an uncharacteristic ardor and urged the study of his philosophy in order to escape from madness. modern life so that we will never again be paralyzed by the bitterness of despair.

From book MICHAEL SHAPIRO "100 GREAT JEWS"

Early in 1656 Spinoza's heretical views, shared by the physician Juan de Prado (1614–1672?) and the teacher Daniel de Ribera, attracted the attention of the communal leadership. Spinoza questioned, among other things, that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, that Adam was the first man, and that the law of Moses is superior to "natural law". Perhaps these heretical views reflected the influence of the French freethinker Marrano I. La Peyrera (born in 1594 or 1596 - died in 1676), whose work "Pre-Adamites" ("People before Adam") was published in Amsterdam in 1655 G.

J. de Prado was forced to renounce his views; Spinoza refused to follow suit, and on July 27, 1656, he was inflicted with a herem. The cherem document was signed by S. L. Morteira (see above) and other rabbis. Members of the Jewish community were forbidden any contact with Spinoza.

After his excommunication, Spinoza apparently studied at the University of Leiden; in 1658–59 he met in Amsterdam with J. de Prado; about them, in the report of the Spanish Inquisition from Amsterdam, it was indicated that they reject the law of Moses and the immortality of the soul, and also believe that God exists only in philosophical sense. According to contemporaries, the hatred of the Jewish community for Spinoza was so strong that even attempts were made to kill him. The hostile attitude of the community prompted Spinoza to write an apology for his views (in Spanish; not preserved), which, apparently, formed the basis of the Theological and Political Treatise he wrote later.

Around 1660, Spinoza left Amsterdam, changed his name to Benedict (the Latin equivalent of Baruch), struck up an acquaintance with some Protestants, and settled in Rijnsburg, where he made a living by polishing lenses. From 1664 to 1670 he lived in the suburb of The Hague Voorburg, then - until the end of his life - in The Hague. Spinoza's correspondence testifies that in 1663 he developed his philosophical system, intending to present it for discussion in a philosophical club. In the same year, he wrote in Latin "The Principles of the Philosophy of René Descartes" - the only work that was not published anonymously. This work presents in geometric form and criticizes the philosophy of R. Descartes, which had a significant impact on the thought of Spinoza himself.

In 1670 Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was published anonymously, containing a critique of the religious idea of ​​revelation and a defense of intellectual, religious, and political freedom. This rationalist attack on religion caused a sensation. The book was banned everywhere, so it was sold with false title pages. Due to constant attacks, Spinoza refused to publish the Treatise in Dutch. In a lengthy letter to one of the leaders of the Sephardic community in Amsterdam, Orobio de Castro (1620–87), Spinoza defended himself against accusations of atheism.

Although Spinoza tried not to interfere in public affairs, during the French invasion of Holland (1672), he was unwittingly drawn into political conflict when Spinoza's friend and patron, Jan de Witt (the de facto head of the Dutch state), was killed by an angry mob, who considered him and his brother responsible for the defeat. Spinoza wrote an appeal in which he called the inhabitants of The Hague "the lowest barbarians." Only thanks to the fact that the owner of the apartment locked Spinoza and did not let him out into the street, the life of the philosopher was saved.

In 1673, the Elector of the Palatinate offered Spinoza the chair of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, promising full freedom of teaching on the condition that he would not attack the dominant religion. However, Spinoza rejected this proposal, wanting to preserve his independence and peace of mind. Spinoza also refused the offer to dedicate his work to the French king Louis XIV, transmitted along with an invitation to Utrecht on behalf of the French commander, Prince L. de Conde. Consecration to the king would have guaranteed Spinoza a pension, but the philosopher preferred independence. Despite this, on his return to The Hague, Spinoza was accused of having links with the enemy; he managed to prove that many of the state dignitaries knew about his trip and approved of its goals.

In 1674, Spinoza completed his main work, Ethics. An attempt to publish it in 1675 ended in failure due to pressure from Protestant theologians who claimed that Spinoza denied the existence of God. Having refused to publish his work, Spinoza continued to lead a modest life. He wrote extensively, discussed philosophical questions with friends, including G. Leibniz, but did not try to inspire anyone with his radical views. In 1677 he died of consumption.

Spinoza was the first modern thinker who did not belong to any church or sect. Spinoza's Ethics was first published in the book Posthumous Works (in Latin, 1677; simultaneously in Dutch translation). The Posthumous Works also included the unfinished work Treatise on the Improvement human mind(written in Latin around 1661), a Political Treatise (completed shortly before the author's death), a Brief Summary of Hebrew Grammar (unfinished), and selected letters. Spinoza began working on the grammar of the Hebrew language at the request of friends a few years before his death; it was conceived as a self-instruction manual for Hebrew, but Spinoza also dealt with difficult questions of philology in it. Since Spinoza wrote mainly for his Christian friends, he followed the system adopted in the presentation of the grammar of the Latin language, using some of its terms. He also proposed a classification of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, based on the phonetic principle. In 1687, Spinoza's only natural scientific work, The Treatise on the Rainbow, was published (republished in 1862 together with the philosopher's hitherto unknown work, A Brief Treatise on God, Man and His Bliss, written before 1660, and some letters ; edition of Van Vloten).

Philosophy of Spinoza

Researchers disagree on the question of the sources of Spinoza's philosophy. It is known that he was well aware of medieval Jewish philosophy, especially Maimonides and Hasdai Crescas, and was also influenced by Stoicism, T. Hobbes and, most of all, R. Descartes. Some researchers believe that Spinoza's views were influenced by the philosophy of the Renaissance, mainly by J. Bruno. G. O. Wolfson considered Spinoza "the last medieval and the first modern thinker." Hegel saw in Spinoza's teachings the highest philosophical expression of Jewish monotheism. Some scholars find Kabbalah influence in Spinoza. Most researchers admit that although Spinoza disagreed with Descartes in his views on a number of important issues of philosophy, he adopted from him the ideal of building a unified philosophical system based on clear and distinct "self-evident" knowledge - following the model of the provisions of mathematics; from Descartes, he learned the basic concepts of his system, although he gave them a new, original content.

Metaphysics. The doctrine of substance

The goal of metaphysics for Spinoza was to achieve a person's peace of mind, contentment and joy. He believed that this goal could only be achieved through man's knowledge of his nature and his place in the universe. And this, in turn, requires knowledge of the nature of reality itself. Therefore, Spinoza turns to the study of being as such. This research leads to being, both from an ontological and logical point of view, primary - to an infinite substance, which is the cause of itself (causa sui). Each finite thing is only a particular, limited manifestation of an infinite substance. Substance is the world or nature in the most general sense. Substance is one, since two substances would limit each other, which is incompatible with the infinity inherent in substance. This position of Spinoza is directed against Descartes, who asserted the existence of created substances along with the substance of their Creator. The "created substances" of Descartes - extended and thinking - turn in Spinoza into attributes of a single substance. According to Spinoza, a substance has an infinite number of attributes, but only two of them are known to man - extension and thinking. Attributes can be interpreted as the real active forces of the substance that Spinoza calls God. God is a single cause, manifested in various forces expressing His essence. Such an interpretation brings the relation of God-substance to attributes closer to the relation of the transcendent Deity (see Ein-sof) to His emanations (see Sefirot) in Kabbalah. The paradox of the relationship of the infinite Deity to the extra-divine world is overcome in Kabbalah with the help of the concept of God's self-limitation (tzimtzum).

Spinoza's three proofs of the existence of God are based on the so-called ontological proof, which was also used by Descartes. However, Spinoza's God is not the transcendent God of theology and theistic philosophy: He does not exist outside the world, but is identical with the world. Spinoza expressed this pantheistic view in the famous formula "Deus sive Natura" ("God or Nature"). Spinoza's God cannot be attributed any personal properties, including will. Although Spinoza says that God is free, he means that God is subject only to his own nature, and therefore in God freedom is identical with necessity. Only God as causa sui has freedom, all finite beings are conditioned by God.

The fact that we know only two of the infinite number of attributes of God - extension and thinking - follows solely from the limitations of our mind. Every single thing is a partial disclosure of substance and all its attributes; the infinite mind of God knows them in their entirety. According to Spinoza, each thought is only a part or mode of an attribute of thinking. From this it follows that every single thing is not only human body- has a soul. Every material thing finds expression in the attribute of thinking as an idea in the Divine Mind; this expression is the mental aspect of the thing, or its "soul."

God also has the attribute of extension, but this attribute is not identical to the material world, since matter is divisible, and the infinite God cannot be divided into parts. God has extension in the sense that He is expressed in the very fact of the existence of the material world and in the regularity to which this world is subject. Another regularity dominates in the field of thinking. Each of these areas is infinite in its own way, but both of them are equally attributes of the one God.

The result of dividing attributes into parts is modes. Each mode is a separate thing in which a certain finite aspect of a single substance finds expression. The set of modes is infinite due to the infinity of substance. This multitude is not outside of God, but dwells in Him. Every single thing is a partial negation within an infinite system. According to Spinoza, "every determination is a negation." Attributes are divided into modes of varying degrees: direct and indirect.

In God, or substance, Spinoza distinguishes two aspects: creative nature (Natura naturans) and created nature (Natura naturata). The first is God and His attributes, the second is the world of modes, infinite and finite. Both natures, however, belong to the same substance, which is the inner cause of all modes. In the realm of modes, strict determinism prevails: each finite mode is determined by another mode of the same attribute; the totality of modes is determined by substance. Spinoza's extreme determinism rules out free will; the consciousness of freedom is an illusion arising from ignorance of the causes of our mental states. Spinoza's determinism also excludes chance, the idea of ​​which is also the fruit of ignorance of the causes of this or that event. Spinoza builds his ethics on the basis of strict determinism.

Anthropology (the study of man)

Man, according to Spinoza, is a mode that reveals itself in two attributes; soul and body are different aspects of the same being. The soul is the concept of the body, or the body insofar as it is conscious. Every event in the world is at the same time a mode of extension and thinking attributes. The material system - the body - is reflected in the system of ideas - the soul. These ideas are not only concepts, but also different mental states (feelings, desires, etc.). Man, like all other creatures in the universe, is inherent in the desire (conatus) for self-preservation. This aspiration expresses the infinite Divine power. The only criterion for evaluating phenomena is the benefit or harm they bring to a person. It is necessary to distinguish between what is really useful to a person and what only seems useful. Ethics is thus placed in dependence on knowledge.

Theory of knowledge

Spinoza's theory of knowledge is based on the position that human thinking is a partial disclosure of the Divine attribute of thinking. Spinoza considers the criterion of the truth of thinking not the correspondence of a concept to an object, but its clarity and logical connection with other concepts. The correspondence of the concept to its object is ensured only by the metaphysical doctrine of the unity of all attributes in a single substance. The mistake lies in separating the concept from the whole. Spinoza distinguishes three levels of knowledge: opinion (opinio), based on representation or imagination; reasonable knowledge (ratio) and intuitive knowledge(scientia intuitiva). The highest level of cognition is intuitive comprehension, which considers reality "from the point of view of eternity" (sub specie aeternitatis), that is, in a supertemporal logical connection with the whole - God, or nature. However, even the highest level of knowledge does not in itself ensure the deliverance of a person from passions and suffering; to achieve this, knowledge must be accompanied by an appropriate affect (affectus).

Psychology

Spinoza's doctrine of affects, which occupies more than half of his "Ethics", is based on the concept of striving (conatus) for existence, which is expressed in parallel in the bodily and mental spheres. Affects are the expression of this striving in the sphere of the soul. Spinoza subjects various affects to analysis (which in many respects anticipates modern psychology). Man emerges in this analysis as a largely irrational being who is ignorant of most of his motives and passions. Cognition of the first stage leads to a clash in the human soul of different aspirations. This is the "slavery of man", which can only be overcome with the help of affects stronger than those that dominate him.

Purely theoretical knowledge is not enough to change the nature of the affect. But what more people uses the power of his mind, the more clearly he understands that his thoughts proceed in a necessary way from his essence as a thinking being; this strengthens his specific desire for existence (conatus), and he becomes more free. The good for a person is that which contributes to the disclosure and strengthening of his natural essence, his specific life aspiration - reason. When a person comes to know the emotions that enslave him (which are always accompanied by sadness or suffering), when he knows their true causes, their strength disappears, and with it sadness also disappears. At the second stage of knowledge, when the passions are recognized as necessarily arising from the general laws that prevail in the world, sadness gives way to joy (laetitia). This stage of cognition is accompanied by an affect that is stronger than the affects inherent in sensibility, since the object of this affect is eternal laws realities, and not private, transient things that constitute the objects of the first stage of knowledge.

The highest good is known, however, at the third stage of knowledge, when a person comprehends himself in God, "from the point of view of eternity." This knowledge is connected with the affect of joy that accompanies the concept of God as the cause of joy. Since the strength of the joy that love brings depends on the nature of the object of love, love for an eternal and infinite object is the strongest and most constant. At the intuitive stage of cognition, a person cognizes himself as a particular mode of God, therefore, he who cognizes himself and his affects clearly and distinctly loves God. This is "intellectual love of God" (amor Dei intellectualis). Spinoza uses the language of religion: he speaks of "salvation of the soul" and "second birth", but his views are far from the traditional position of the Jewish and Christian religions. Spinoza's God is identical with eternal and infinite nature. He does not have personality traits, so a person cannot expect reciprocal love from God. Intellectual love for God, according to the teachings of Spinoza, is the property of an individual person; it cannot have the social or moral expression that is characteristic of historical religions. Spinoza recognizes the immortality of the soul, which he identifies with a particle of God's thought. The more a person comprehends his place in God, the greater part of his soul reaches immortality. The self-knowledge of man is part of the self-knowledge of God.

Political philosophy

Political philosophy is set forth in Spinoza's Ethics, but mainly in the Theological-Political Treatise and political treatise". To a large extent, it follows from the metaphysics of Spinoza, but it also reveals the influence of the teachings of T. Hobbes. Like the latter, Spinoza draws a distinction between the state of nature, in which there is no social organization, and the state of statehood. According to Spinoza, there are no natural rights except one, identical with force or aspiration (conatus). In the natural state, people are like fish: the big ones devour the small ones. In the state of nature, people live in constant fear. In order to save themselves from the constantly threatening danger, people enter into an agreement with each other, according to which they renounce their "natural rights" (that is, the ability to act at their discretion in accordance with their natural forces) in favor of state power. This treaty is not, however, morally binding - treaties are to be observed as long as they are useful. Therefore, power depends on its ability to force people to obey. The identification of law with a possibility or ability, which, according to Spinoza, was characteristic of the natural state of people, is also recognized as characteristic of the relationship between state power and subjects. The subject must submit to authority as long as it enforces public order; however, if power forces subjects to commit unseemly acts or threatens their lives, rebellion against power is a lesser evil. A reasonable ruler will try not to bring his subjects to rebellion. best form Spinoza's reign considers a republic based on the principles of reason. This form is the most durable and stable, since the citizens of the republic obey the authorities of their own free will and enjoy reasonable freedom. In this, Spinoza disagrees with Hobbes, a supporter of absolute monarchy. In a rationally arranged state, the interests of an individual person coincide with the interests of the whole society. The state limits the freedom of action of a citizen, but cannot limit his freedom of thought and freedom to express his opinions. Independent thinking is an essential property of a person. Thus, Spinoza defends the idea of ​​freedom of conscience, which predetermined his entire fate. However, he distinguishes between the theoretical and practical aspects of religion: faith is a personal matter for everyone, but the implementation of practical prescriptions, especially those relating to a person's relationship with his neighbors, is the business of the state. According to Spinoza, religion should be state; any attempt to separate religion (practical) from the state and create a separate church within the state leads to the destruction of the state. Government has the right to use religion as a means of strengthening social discipline.

In examining the relationship between religion and the state, Spinoza critically describes the Jewish state during the eras of the First and Second Temples. Some researchers believe that Spinoza's criticism was actually directed against the attempts of the Protestant clergy to interfere in the state affairs of Holland. Others, however, believe that the object of Spinoza's criticism was the leadership of the Jewish community, as a result of the conflict with which the free thinker found himself outside the framework of Judaism. According to Spinoza, the Jewish state of antiquity was a one-of-a-kind attempt to put into practice the idea of ​​a theocracy in which God is given a place occupied in other government devices monarch or aristocracy. God could not rule the Jewish people except through his messengers. Moses was the legislator and supreme interpreter of the will of God, and after his death, two systems of power arose - spiritual (priests and prophets) and secular (judges, later kings). The first temple fell because of the struggle between these authorities, the second - because of the attempts of the clergy to subordinate state affairs to religious considerations. Spinoza comes to the conclusion that a theocracy cannot exist at all, and that an apparently theocratic regime is in reality a disguised domination of people who are considered messengers of God.

Spinoza is generally regarded as the founder of biblical criticism (see Bible. Exegesis Exegesis and Critical Studies of the Bible. Scholarly Research and Criticism of the Bible). He tried to find evidence in the very text of the Bible that it was not God's revelation, surpassing the powers of the human mind. Spinoza believes that the Bible contains no proof of the existence of God as a supernatural being, but it shows how to instill beneficent fear in the heart ordinary people incapable of abstract thought.

The impetus for the critical study of the Bible was given by Spinoza's acquaintance with the work of Avra X ama Ibn Ezra, who for the first time (albeit in the form of a hint) expressed doubt that Moses was the author of the entire Pentateuch. Spinoza claims that certain parts of the Bible were written after the death of Moses by another author. According to Spinoza, other books of the Bible were not written by the people who are credited with their authorship, but by those who lived later. Moses, according to Spinoza, was the author of some sacred books that have not come down to us. Spinoza believes that most bible books(Pentateuch and historical books) was written during the Babylonian captivity by one author - Ezra. Spinoza suggests that the book that Ezra read to the people (see Israel. Eretz Israel. Historical outline. Second Temple era. Ezra and Nehemiah) was the book of Deuteronomy.

In his research, Spinoza relies on biblical, Talmudic and other sources (for example, on the writings of Josephus). Spinoza's research was far ahead of its time, not evoking a response from contemporaries - the Jews did not read the writings of the "heretic", and the Christians were not ready to accept his ideas. The first and for a long time the only author who drew ideas from Spinoza's book was the French Hebraist, the Catholic monk R. Simon. His work " critical history old testament"(1678) caused heated debate and brought persecution from the church authorities on the author; however, his critical study of the Bible is not deep enough compared to Spinoza's.

Spinoza's influence on modern philosophy

Immediately after the publication of the Theological-Political Treatise (1670), Spinoza was accused of atheism, or at least of deism, since he denied that God has personality traits and put blind fate in place of Divine providence. The term "Spinozism" began to be applied indiscriminately to various atheistic teachings, which often had nothing to do with Spinoza's philosophy. In the 17-18 centuries. almost no one read Spinoza's works, which made it easier to falsify his views.

G. V. Leibniz had to defend himself against the accusation of inclination towards “Spinozism”. His student H. Wolf pointed out numerous differences between philosophical systems Spinoza and Leibniz. The French skeptic philosopher P. Bayle, in his Dictionary (1695–97), praised Spinoza's personality, but ridiculed his monism. Bayle's opinion was adopted by Voltaire and D. Diderot. Interest in Spinoza in Germany during the Enlightenment arose in the debate about whether G. E. Lessing was a follower of Spinoza. The discussion was started by M. Mendelssohn, who claimed that Lessing was a pantheist, however, unlike Spinoza, he recognized the existence of beings outside of God, although dependent on Him. The representative of the so-called philosophy of feeling and faith, F. G. Jacobi, who claimed that Lessing himself called himself a "Spinozist", saw in Spinoza's teaching a vivid expression of rationalism, to which he contrasted religious revelation and direct faith. J. G. Herder and J. W. Goethe noted the great influence of Spinoza on their worldview, which, however, differed significantly from the teachings of the latter.

The German romantics and the theologian F. Schleiermacher close to them laid the foundation for the religious-mystical interpretation of Spinoza's philosophy. G. Hegel saw in the teachings of Spinoza "the starting point of all philosophy." He pointed out the contrast between Spinoza's philosophy and materialism: Spinoza denied not God, but soulless matter. Spinoza's teaching, according to Hegel, is not atheism, but "acosmism". F. Schelling in his philosophy of identity interpreted the teachings of Spinoza in a mystical spirit. Under the influence of German idealism, the English poet and philosopher S. Coleridge sought to combine the teachings of Spinoza with christian religion. G. Heine was an enthusiastic admirer of Spinoza. Spinoza's influence to a greater or lesser extent affected the philosophical views of L. Feuerbach, M. Hess, and other thinkers of the 19th century. A. Einstein was a follower of Spinoza's philosophy. Marxists showed particular interest in Spinoza's philosophy. G. Plekhanov saw him as a predecessor dialectical materialism and, referring to F. Engels, he defined Marxist philosophy as "a kind of Spinozism." Soviet official philosophy accepted Plekhanov's interpretation of Spinoza's teachings with some amendments and gave the latter an honorable place among his predecessors as a "materialist" and "atheist".

In Russian philosophy, Spinoza was highly valued by V. Solovyov, who argued with the neo-Kantian A. Vvedensky, who wrote about Spinoza's "atheism." Solovyov considered the teachings of Spinoza as a philosophy of unity, in many respects anticipating his own religious philosophy. L. Shestov saw in Spinoza's rationalism and objectivism a perfect example of traditional philosophy, generated by the fall and expressing the enslavement of man by abstract truths.

Spinoza's "Theological-Political Treatise" had a great influence on the deists of the 17th and 18th centuries. and thus became one of the indirect sources of contemporary secular anti-Semitism. Spinoza's rationalistic interpretation of the biblical narrative, the denial of the idea of ​​a chosen people, divinely inspired prophecy, and a miracle were used by the deists in their criticism of Christianity and its Jewish sources. Although Spinoza did not convert to Christianity, in his treatise he clearly favored the universalist preaching of Jesus over the particularism of the Jewish religion. In the works of Jewish thinkers of the 18th-19th centuries. contains a hidden or open polemic with the views of Spinoza, along with the adoption of some of his ideas (see, for example, M. Mendelssohn E. Schweid in the book “ X a-s X udi X a-boded ve-ya X adut” (“The Lonely Jew and Jewry”, 1974) argued that Spinoza, who consciously opposed himself to Jewry, cannot be considered a representative of Jewish philosophy, despite the undoubted influence of Jewish sources on his work. Other authors (for example, Geneviève Brickman in On the Jewry of Spinoza, 1994) insist that Spinoza remained a Jewish thinker in his most critical remarks about Jewry. Jewish roots The philosophy of Spinoza is devoted to the works of L. Roth "Spinoza, Descartes and Maimonides" (1924) and "Spinoza" (1929), L. Strauss "Criticism of religion in Spinoza as the basis of his biblical studies" (1930), as well as a two-volume study by G. O Wolfson "Philosophy of Spinoza" (1934).

Some Jewish thinkers considered Spinoza the first Jew who adhered to secular, national and even Zionist views (Spinoza wrote about the possibility of restoring a Jewish state in Eretz Israel). N. Sokolov called for the abolition of the cherem once imposed on Spinoza; his opinion was shared by I. G. Klausner and D. Ben-Gurion. In 1977, an international philosophical congress was held in Jerusalem, dedicated to. 300th anniversary of the death of Spinoza. Established at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem science Center for the study of Spinoza's philosophy. In modern philosophy, interest in Spinoza has not waned: studies of the English philosopher S. Hampshire (“Spinoza”, Harmondsworth, 1951), Israeli philosophers S. Pinness (“Theological-Political Treatise” of Spinoza, Maimonides and Kant”, Jer., 1968) and J. Yovel (born in 1935; "Spinoza ve-kofrim acherim" - "Spinoza and other heretics", T.-A., 1989) and others.