Spinoza - Portrait of a Spiritual Hero (Hardcover)

1946. Translated by Amy Allen and Maxim Newmark. A history of the life of Baruch Spinoza (who later began using the name Benedict), one of the most important of the post-Cartesian philosophers in the second half of the 17th century. He made significant contributions in virtually every area of philosophy, and his writings reveal the influence of such divergent sources as Stoicism, Jewish Rationalism, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Descartes, and a variety of heterodox religious thinkers of his day. Spinoza was one of those great men who made himself famous by views that were unusual and unknown to common souls. His father was a Portuguese Jew and because he did not have the means to help his son in business, he allowed Spinoza to study Hebrew literature. Due to the inadequacy of answers to questions voiced to his teacher, Spinoza began to read scripture over and over again, penetrated its obscurity, laid bare its mysteries and brought daylight to the clouds behind which he found truth. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.