Biography
The Dutch Thinker Benedict Spinoza was the leading philosopher of the VII century, which in the Epoch of Enlightenment represented the Western European course of naturalism. Inspired by the ideas of René Descartes, he used a rational method and formulated his own point of view of knowledge, God and life sense.Childhood and youth
Benedict, or Baruch, de Spinos was born on November 24, 1632 in the family of Dutch Jews-Sephardov, expelled from Portugal. The father owned the business in the fruit trade, and his mother helped him in the shop, was engaged in household and watched five children.
Following the traditions of religious ancestors, the future philosopher went to a specialized school, where, in addition to general educational items, Talmud and Hebrew were studied. There, on a par with rabbinistic literature, he met with the works of ancient thinkers who translated and interpreted the Jewish theologian Moses Misonide.
Soon, under the beginning of the experienced teachers of Saul Montira and Menasha, Ben Israel Benedict mastered Latin's Azas and learned Portuguese and Spanish. He began to be interested in secular works, but it did not prevent a parent of the old Jewish custom, to read the mourning prayer of Kadish.
Having received the inheritance, Spinosa refused to continue the family business and handed over the ownership of the younger brother and the older sister. He met the collegiates and soon was expelled from the Jewish community, thanks to which he managed to continue their education in a private Jesuit College.
The young man was engaged in an in-depth study of natural science and philosophy, and more than others were interested in the work that Rene Descartes wrote. To make a living by learning Hebrew and grinding optical glasses, which made it possible to prepare for printing the first anonymous scientific treatise.
At the end of the 1650s, Spinosa headed a circle of thinkers, which radically changed his biography and influenced his subsequent life. He was recognized as a threat to piety and morality and folded out of Amsterdam because he was associated with Protestants and openly supported rationalism.
Personal life
According to the photocopies of the preserved documents, Spinosa did not care about his personal life, so he had never had any wife or children. He led a lonely existence in Reinsburg, Vorbühurg and Hague, earning a grinding of optics and getting donations from friends.Philosophy
In order to freely engage in philosophy, Benedict moved to the south of Holland and wrote the text of the work "Treatise on the Improvement of Mind." In addition, he began working on the first book of the famous "ethics" and studied the work of members of the London Royal Scientific Society.
The main idea of the writings of this time was the knowledge of a person of his own nature, which led the author to a thorough study of the logic and metaphysics of being. This concept was associated with an infinite universal substance, which from any point of view was the cause of itself.
The contradiction of the statements of the Descartes, who was a recognized rationalist, the expelled thinker endowed everything next to the attribute properties. The description of thinking and stretching was regarded as a contribution to psychology and applied in practice for the characteristics of the physical body, which has a soul.
The reality of the world philosopher determined, like most naturalists, whose ethics were initially built on purely natural abilities. Therefore, the concept of "the will of God" he explained with objective reasons, flatly note of the assumptions about freedom of will and chance.
Any action, internal or external, Benedict associated with the material world, which existed in the universe built "in accordance with the procedure of things." A person whose body is endowed with affects, could reach joy and harmony, guided by reason, logic, laws, desires and intuition.
For mixing concepts from different areas of the knowledge of the philosopher, contemporaries and followers were criticized, and some were found in the "heretical" ideas for the signs of the cables and occult sciences. But despite this, the quotes of Spinoza spread and with time became aphorisms, since every written work was published in Russia and European countries.
Death
The cause of the death of Benedict Spinoza on February 21, 1677 was the pulmonary tuberculosis, which was associated with smoking tobacco. The body fell into the overall grave, the property and letters were destroyed, and a miraculously survived philosophical treatises issued without the author.Bibliography
- 1660 - "On God, Man and His Happiness"
- 1662 - "The treatise on the improvement of the mind and the path that is best sent to the true knowledge of things"
- 1663 - "Basics of Descartes' philosophy, proven by a geometric way"
- 1670 - "Theologian-Political Treatise"
- 1677 - "Political Treatise"
- 1677 - "Ethics proven in geometric order and divided into five parts"
- 1677 - "Jewish grammar"