Spinoza, Benedictus de

Spinoza, Benedictus de (also Baruch) (1632–77), Dutch Jewish philosopher. In 1656 he was expelled from the Synagogue and had to leave Amsterdam. In various places he earned his living by grinding lenses. Most of his writings were published posthumously, including his main work, the Ethica ordine geometrico demonstrata (1677).

The foundation of Spinoza's system is his idea of God as a single all-embracing substance, which contains within itself the reason for its existence. This substance is infinite, with an infinite number of attributes, of which only two, thought (cogitatio) and extension (extensio) are known to man. All individual things are modes of these two attributes, being either bodies or ideas. The human mind is part of the Divine impersonal intellect which works according to necessity. Spinoza thus denies free will, the permanence of personality, and immortality. The highest human activity is the loving contemplation of God which becomes possible in so far as one can master the passions and live in accordance with reason. His studies on the Bible have made him one of the fathers of modern historical biblical criticism.