Spinoza, Baruch (or Benedictus) (1632-77)
Dutch Jewish philosopher. Often
viewed as a pantheist, or pure naturalist, and rigid determinist, he wrote of
the single metaphysical substance (“God or nature”), or the one necessary being
that is self-dependent and not distinct from the world. As a strict rationalist influenced by René
Descartes (1596-1650), he also discussed how we may know this one reality by
way of a kind of Euclidian reasoning that issues in an ethical appreciation of
reality as it is known to the intellect.
Contributed by: Marty Maddox/CTNS
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