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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.
Contents
Part I: Setting the Scene
1: Introduction
2: Unparalleled Challenge
Part II: The Young Spinoza
3: Youthful Rebel
4: Secret Legacy from Portugal
5: Childhood and Family Tradition
6: Schooldays
7: Honour and Wealth
8: Teaching Skills: Van den Enden (1656-1661), Latin, and the Theatre
9: Collegiants, Millenarians, and Quakers: the Mid- and Late 1650s
10: 'Monstrous Heresies': Ties with Marrano Deists
Part III: Reformer and Subverter of Descartes
11: Forming a Study Group
12: Rijnsburg Years (1661-63)
13: Spinoza and the Scientific Revolution
14: 'Reforming' Descartes' Principles
15: Writing the Ethics
16: Voorburg
17: Spinoza and the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1664-1667)
18: Invasion, Slump, and Comets (1665-66)
19: Spinoza, Meyer, and The 1666 Philosophia Controversy
20: From the Jaws of Defeat
Part IV: Darkening Horizons
21: The Tragedy of the Brothers Koerbagh (1668-1669)
22: Nil Volentibus Arduum: Spinoza and the Arts
23: Twilight of the 'True Freedom'
24: Revolution in Bible Criticism
25: Spinoza Subverts Hobbes
26: Publishing the Theological-Political Treatise
27: Intensifying Reaction (early 1670s)
28: Spinoza's Libertine '"French Circle'
29: Reshaping the Republic: from Oligarchic to Democratic Republicanism
Part V: Last Years
30: Disaster Year (1672)
31: Denying the Supernatural
32: Entering (or Not Entering) Princely Court Culture (1672-73)
33: Creeping Diffusion
34: Mysterious Trip to Utrecht (July-August 1673)
35: Expanding the 'Spinozist Sect'
36: Amsterdam Revisited (1673-75)
37: Hebrew in Spinoza's Later Life
38: Encounter with Leibniz (1676)
39: Fighting Back
40: Last Days, Death, and Funeral (1677)
41: A Stormy Aftermath
42: Conclusion: Philosophy integrated with Bible Critique and Political Theory
