because Spinoza’s Latin spirit fermented in an Ibn Tibbon Hebrew rebrew, a Marrano malt that neither is a single nor a double, but a triple, ale from three spirits which Spinoza’s mighty mind would ...

Gottfried Leibniz is remembered as a metaphysical Pollyanna, thanks to Voltaire's caricature -- the hapless Dr. Pangloss, who insists that all is for the best, even as he is afflicted with syphilis, ...

So far in this series I've focused on Spinoza's critique of the religious and philosophical world view of his time. But what does he propose in place of anthropomorphic, anthropocentric belief in a ...

Last week, we examined Spinoza's metaphysics, looking at how his radical reinterpretation of the philosophical terminology of substance, attribute and mode produces a new vision of reality. According ...

To talk favourably of the Enlightenment has become something of a taboo in recent years. Some writers deny its existence, while others present it as a reactionary development. It is therefore ...

On July 27, 1656, the governors of Amsterdam’s Jewish synagogue read out a proclamation of excommunication. With unprecedented ferocity, it excoriated Baruch Spinoza for “abominable heresies” and ...