Baruch Spinoza
Dutch philosopher who constructed a geometric system of ethics that identified God with Nature and denied free will, miracles, and personal immortality. Excommunicated from his Jewish community at 23, he lived as a lens-grinder and developed the most rigorous philosophy of the 17th century. The Ethics is his masterwork.
Works
- EthicsMonistic metaphysics grounding all reality in divine substance and necessity
- Theological-Political TreatisePolitical and biblical criticism defending individual freedom and democratic reason
- On the Improvement of the UnderstandingEpistemological work on human understanding and rational self-cultivation
- Political TreatisePolitical theory examining sovereign power and individual rights and obligations
- Short TreatiseEarly systematic work presenting Spinoza's monistic metaphysics and ethics
- Tractatus Theologico-PoliticusCritique of biblical authority and defense of rational biblical interpretation
- Tractatus PoliticusTheory of sovereign power and right within the Spinozist framework