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Spinoza A Life Paperback – 14 Jun. 2001

4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 55 ratings

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Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) was one of the most important philosophers of all time; he was also arguably the most radical and controversial. This was the first complete biography of Spinoza in any language and is based on detailed archival research. More than simply recounting the story of Spinoza's life, the book takes the reader right into the heart of Jewish Amsterdam in the seventeenth century and, with Spinoza's exile from Judaism, right into the midst of the tumultuous political, social, intellectual and religious world of the young Dutch Republic. Though the book will be an invaluable resource for philosophers, historians, and scholars of Jewish thought, it has been written for any member of the general reading public with a serious interest in philosophy, Jewish history, seventeenth-century European history, and the culture of the Dutch Golden Age. Spinoza: A Life has recently been awarded the Koret Jewish Book Award.
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Review

'Few philosophers have elicited so much controversy as Spinoza. His life has been obscured by legends on account of the polemics surrounding his philosophical tenets and the relative paucity of established facts. Steven Nadler's elegant new biography is an important step forward; it carefully assesses all the information available, takes into account the most recent scholarly work, and integrates the biographical material, Spinoza's philosophy and the historical background into a fascinating story.' Piet Steenbakkers, University of Utrecht

'Nadler's biography is superb, the best I know … He puts the extraordinary man with surprisingly naturalistic ideas against the historical background and in discussion with contemporaries as well as with the reader.' Wim Klever, University of Rotterdam

'A rich and illuminating biography of one of philosophy's most intriguing thinkers. Nadler deftly weaves together the details of Spinoza's life and thought, tracing his passage from the Sephardic community of his youth to the works of his maturity. The result is an exceptional book - eminently readable and based on the best recent scholarship.' Donald Rutherford, Emory University

'Nadler paints the historical milieu in vivid colours, while ferreting out the tiniest details of a philosopher's day.' The Guardian

'Whether we wish to learn about the Sephardic community in Amsterdam in the seventeenth century, or discover the background to Spinoza's thought, this is the book to read.' Expository Times

'… splendidly researched … eminently readable and accessible even to those who have never read anything of philosophy, this book offers both an excellent summation of Spinoza's ideas and an equally fine description of life in the Jewish and Christian communities of seventeenth-century Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands in a Golden Age that was also a period of political religious, and social strife.' The Jerusalem Post

'… the picture Nadler paints of the intellectual life of seventeenth-century Amsterdam (and in particular of its Jewish community) is vivid, and his outlines of Spinoza's works are helpful and clear.' Practical Philosophy

'Periodically one embarks upon the reading of a book for a particular reason only to discover that the treasures awaiting discovery in the book far exceed expectations. Such is the reading to Steven Nadler's biography of Burach Spinoza. … perceptive insights into the life of Spinoza. … a remarkable foray into the middle-seventeenth-century life of Amsterdam … as the reader peruses its pages, he is almost able to feel the pressures that Spinoza felt and to see the life of the Dutch countryside and even to inhale its scents. For someone looking for a vivid picture of post-Reformation Europe as well as a fabulous biography of a lonely thinker whose influence is now increasing in our own era, I commend without reservation Steven Nadler's Spinoza: A Life.' Paige Patterson, Faith and Mission

'This is the first full-length biography of Spinoza to appear in English, and as such it must be welcomed. It contains admirably lucid analyses of Spinoza's writings and thought, so one could hardly wish for a better introduction.' Heythrop Journal

Book Description

Complete biography of Spinoza based on detailed archival research.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; First Edition (14 Jun. 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 430 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0521002931
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521002936
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 1.91 x 22.86 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 55 ratings

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Steven M. Nadler
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2018
    Am interested in this philosopher
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 April 2013
    Spinoza, was one of the first in biblical criticism, and for his pains, was excommunicated. When his Rabbi offered him a pension to stop writing and tow the line he replied, "I thank you for the trouble you took teaching me Hebrew and I'll return the favor by teaching you excommunication" A man much misunderstood in his time, though time the great healer has now rectified that..
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 August 2015
    Great book.........
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2011
    Don't be taken in by the proceleusmatic blurbs. While in several respects this is an excellent book, it is a substantially bloodless biography of a philosopher who cut too deeply into the turf to be capable of terpsichorean aphorisms. It needed Somerset Maugham to supercharge what belatedly became Spinoza's most famous phrase ("Of Human Bondage"); and while everyone cites George Santana (1863-1952): "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", there are few who recall Spinoza (1632-1677): "If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past".
    Should author Steven Nadler be excused for making neither of these observations? Well, given his avowed intention to write about Spinoza's life and times rather than a scholarly tome on the philosopher's ideas... I don't think so.
    Much of Spinoza's correspondence survives and a number of near-contemporary writings about him exist. Nadler studiously orders and scrutinizes these in the context of recent scholarly findings about secondary historical personae in the 17th Century. As befits a Jewish academic he is especially impressive when it comes to analysing the 'cherem', the sentence of excommunication by which the young Spinoza was cast out of the Jewish community. But any further insights that Nadler offers are scrupulously speculative, often to the point of apology.
    Spinoza was born into a family of Jewish merchants but, after receiving the cherem, he took up a job as a lens grinder. Nadler hardly talks about the reasons for this decision, the techniques it might have involved, or the way in which Spinoza set about finding customers. He spends more time talking about the rabbis who circled Spinoza's adolescence like vultures than he does about the philosopher's exact contemporary and inventor of the microscope, Leuwenhoek. It's not as if this information is hard to obtain (Spinoza's astronomical correspondence with Huygens, for instance, is on the web); Nadler - as an academic - just isn't excited by the practical aspects of Spinoza's life. He should be; especially as he states positively that glass dust led to Spinoza's early death, a historical supposition that deserves re-examination given that Spinoza smoked clay pipes and his mother probably had TB.
    The 17th C. Dutch Republic is difficult to understand and Nadler offers the facts; but his welcome understanding of Jewish mores is not matched by a similar feeling for the period. This was a time of immense drama - plagues, maritime discoveries, warfare, religious mania - but here there's barely a smell or a scream in the telling. Spinoza's sex life (he never married) is completely unexplored and, while such 'novelistic' speculations might seem unwarranted to some, the absence of historical contexts for his behaviour is often legitimately frustrating. So, the central issue of how - when he published so little in his life - Spinoza came to attract such substantial contemporary attention is inadequately fleshed out. 'He must', says Nadler lamely 'have been charismatic'.
    When Nadler has to relate his subject's opinion that women are weak and 'rightly' subjected to men, he describes it as "unfortunate" and - in the manner of a 19th C. vicar criticising Socrates - uses Spinoza's own logic to display the error of the great man's ways.
    Spinoza set his cap against the times and he deserves a biographer who would do the same. The 'Ethics' might be a famously difficult book, but its profundity is not in doubt and its relevance remains. As Nadler details Spinoza's struggle with the religious sensibilities around him it often seems tiresomely historical. Until you come up against an epistolary excerpt in which the 'cautious philosopher' condemns the controlling aspects of Catholicism - then adds that it's not as suffocating as Moslemism. It's a reasonable and sensible remark: but it's one that most editors would today refuse to include on TV or in the press.
    Hmmm. What did he say about changing the present, again...?
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 March 2010
    Baruch (Benedict)Spinoza (1632-1677) is one of the most influential philosophers in history. As a young man, he was excommunicated by the elders of the Jewish community in Amsterdam and subsequently came to be regarded by some as a "secular saint" and by others as an infamous atheist. Although there are many legends and myths about Spinoza's life, Nadler's book is the first extended biography in English. In fact, outside of brief accounts written shortly after Spinoza's death, this book is probably the first extended treatment of Spinoza's life in any language.

    Given the scarcity of biographical information, Nadler does an excellent job in placing Spinoza's life in historical context. He discusses in detail how the Jewish community in Amsterdam became established, precariously, by immigrants from the Inquistion in Spain and Portugal. He describes the efforts the Jewish community made to win acceptance in Amsterdam, the place of Spinoza's family in the Jewish community, and the rabbis and leaders of the community. Some of this material is well-known, other parts of it are less so. It is all valuable to getting to understand Spinoza.

    There is a great deal of discussion of the history of the Dutch republic in Spinoza's time. Nadler's discussion includes both internal affairs (the tension between those who wanted a powerful monarch and those who wanted republican institutions) and the complex foreign wars and shifting alliances of the Netherlands during Spinoza's time. I never could make sense of this material before, but Nadler has discussed it well and in sufficient detail to provide a good backround in understanding Spinoza's political ideas.

    Nadler's book is not itself a philosophical study. But he treats carefully and instructively the origin of Spinoza's works and he summarizes their complex ideas well. He does not limit his discussion to the Ethics. Instead, Nadler spends a great deal of time on the Theological-Political Treatise which he rightly views as a neglected masterpiece, complementary to the Ethics. There are also good discussions of Spinoza's unfinished "Hebrew Grammar" and, particularly, of the Epistles, as well as of his other works.

    Nadler has a good sense of Spinoza's naturalism encompassed be the famous phrase "deus, siva natura". He gives the reader a good feel for the revolutionary nature of Spinoza's thought and shows how and why Spinoza departed from the traditional religious belief of his day.

    Nadler is a careful in his use of sources. He tells the reader what evidence from a record both complex and sparse he accepts, what he doubts, and why. When Nadler draws a conclusion that goes beyond the available evidence, he tells the reader that he has done so and why he has done so. This is measured, careful writing about a figure Nadler obviously admires.

    There is much creative detail in this book as Nadler draws on recent scholarship to cast light on Spinoza and his times. For example, he relies substantially on the report made to the Inquisition of a person who knew Spinoza in Amsterdam. He discusses the Sabatti Zvi incident (a false Jewish Messiah who appealed to many people during Spinoza's lifetime) and Spinoza's possible knowledge of it. The book rebukes the myth of Spinoza as a recluse. Nadler offers a portrayal of Spinoza's intellectual circle and of his relationship to many friends.

    The book is not a critical analysis of Spinoza's thought. Such studies are legion and there still is much to say and learn. But Nadler offers a thougthful and detailed biography of a seminal figure in Western philosophy. I came away from the book with an increased understanding of and appreciation for Spinoza's life and thought.

    Robin Friedman
    9 people found this helpful
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  • RAS
    4.0 out of 5 stars La biographie de Spinoza
    Reviewed in France on 25 June 2018
    Steven Nadler a écrit une excellente biographie de Spinoza, écrit pour ceux qui ne sont pas des spécialistes. Inutile de dire que Spinoza était un des philosophes le plus méconnus de son temps et en général d'ailleurs.
  • Neil
    5.0 out of 5 stars Spinoza: The Frugal Lens Maker and Ingenious Philosopher
    Reviewed in Canada on 4 November 2015
    Brilliant. Dr. Nadler has done a tremendous amount of leg and mind work to bring such a thoroughly enlightening story.
  • Roberto AMORE
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great canvas of XVII century Holland
    Reviewed in the United States on 22 October 2004
    This is a grand portrait of XVII-century Holland: not just a biography of the great philosopher, but a detailed description - almost a painting in the old classical Dutch style - of the world in which he lived.

    Someone only interested in philosophy could even be disappointed by the great space given to history at detriment to the analysis of Spinoza's thinking and biography.

    It was a long time I wanted to read this book and I did truly enjoy every page of it.

    I'm not a specialist in Dutch history, but a few years ago had the chance to read that other superb portrait of Dutch Golden age under the title of "The Embarrassment of Riches" by Simon Schama, and later I red also the classical "The Dutch Revolt" by Geoffrey Parker and the much more focused "Tulipomania" by Mike Dash

    So I did already know something about the time and the argument.

    This book is different. Obviously it is more focused on the intellectual dimension of Dutch Golden Age, but also much more attentive to individual destinies, not just Spinoza's.

    What is so special in this book?

    First, of course, the portrait of Spinoza, a delicate and difficult task since the extant testimonies about his life are very thin and mostly connected with the thinker and not with the man. To recreate a so vivid portrait from so tiny fragments is probably the best achievement of this book.

    Then the portrait of Amsterdam from the special point of view of the Jewish Sephardim community, the attention to the (truly fascinating) history and peculiarity of this community with its links with mainstream European Judaism, and the special interest in describing everyday life.

    Not lastly the great harvest of anecdotic tales, so many of them to create the texture or a big canvas depicting the time), mostly connected with the main argument, but some of them with a life of their own - and many real gems.

    I'm thinking especially about

    - the case of Uriel Da Costa, a member of a prominent and respectable family in Amsterdam Sephardim Community (maybe even connected by family with Spinoza) who in 1640 - after having been excommunicated from the community after having lost his faith (the sad part is that he wanted, but was no more able, to believe in a personal God) - shot himself in the head.

    - the history of one of the first Jewish (and to some extent Christian too) great awakenings at the call of the so-called Messiah of Smyrna, Sabbatai Levi in 1666: "Jews in various part of the Middle East and Europe were taken by a messianic frenzy...began selling their goods... preparing for their joint return to the Holy Land".

    - the events following the conversion to Catholicism of Albert Burgh, the scion of a wealthy regent family of Amsterdam and former friend of Spinoza, who after a travel to Italy and a deep crisis of conscience regained his faith rejecting the impious Cartesian method and the Spinozist rationality.

    - not last the story of the lynching and murder of the Grand Pensionary Johan De Witt, one of the greatest European intellectuals of the time, and this brother by the Orangist mob in 1672, the year of French invasion of Holland. That night Spinoza was prevented by his landlord "to go out at night and post a placard near the site of the massacre, reading ULTIMI BARBARORUM (roughly translated "You are the greatest of all barbarians")"

    Sometimes imperfection in a book can be a great virtue.

    This book creates as many questions as the answers it tries to give.

    It left me a great curiosity to investigate on Spinoza's circle of friend and to inquire further in that special dimension (still not so distinct, as it will be a century later in Enlightenment Europe) that is the Republic of Letters of the XVII Century.

    The greatest limit of the book is that it conveys the idea that the thinker was a kind of contemplative hermit. And yet it advances a great deal of evidence suggesting a totally different hypothesis: his wide net of correspondents, not least with Leibniz and Oldenburg (at the time Secretary of the Royal Society), the evidence of his ties with the De Witt clan and with many prominent regent families, not last the great "mystery" of his "trip behind the enemy lines" to meet the Great Conde (head of French army) in occupied Utrecht and the secrecy that clouds his death (according to the testimonies he died almost unexpectedly, assisted - or helped ? - by a mysterious unidentified man) are maybe a strong indication of a secretive and reserved mind.

    Possibly the same fact of the so many people that visibly ignored (De Witt) or publicly defamed (the Cartesians, Oldenburg, Leibnitz, Stouppe,...) Spinoza and privately kept on having friendly relations with him, indicates a different condition, a double moral, widely - and shyly - practiced by others and an unshaken coherence, kept strictly private, from his side, ... a pale looming of a larger freer dimension that prepares the European Enlightenment.

    Of course there are many other themes that are considered and explained: philosophical, religious and political... but remember that this is not a strictly philosophic analysis and its main effort has been directed to understand how the contemporary problems and events did shape the life and the environment around the man, and lastly contributed to the development of his particular philosophy.
  • "Ali"
    4.0 out of 5 stars Slow Spinoza
    Reviewed in the United States on 1 March 2015
    My husband really liked this book. He alternates his books. Sometimes a novel, sometimes politics, sometimes philosophy. Of course this kind of book is slow reading and thought-provoking. However, he did read it and like it.
  • Dan Izenberg
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough and Articulate
    Reviewed in Canada on 10 April 2013
    Excellent portrayal of Spinoza, his writings and the times he lived in. Well written. Good for a layman with little or no background in philosophy but interested in history of ideas.