Spinoza was born into the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. At twenty-three he was excommunicated with a curse so severe that no member of the community was allowed to read his writings or stand within four cubits of him. He spent the rest of his life grinding optical lenses and writing philosophy. His Ethics, written in geometric form with definitions, axioms, and proofs, argues that God and Nature are identical, that everything that happens is necessary, and that freedom consists in understanding this necessity. The book was published after his death in 1677. He died of a lung disease at forty-four.
Born into the Portuguese-Jewish community of Amsterdam. His family had fled the Inquisition in Portugal. He grew up speaking Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and Hebrew, and was educated in the Torah and Talmud.
Words
“I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.”
