Baruch Spinoza Essay Research Paper The task — страница 3

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groups collectively known as Collegiants. These small sects, who were sometimes little more than discussion groups, typically rejected all religious ceremonies for their slanderous theories on God and the universe. As his own ideas developed, he went on retreat from Amsterdam for three years to formulate them in writing. Spinoza left his hometown in 1660 and settled in Rijnsburg. This village was a refuge for collegiants, a Baptist sect to which friends of his belonged. He had a small room in the house of the surgeon H. Hooman, where he prepared lenses for optical instruments, and where he wrote down his meditations with a quill. There, he wrote A Short Treatise on God, Man and his Well-Being, and On the Improvement of the Understanding. He also composed a geometric version of

Descartes’ Principles of Philosophy, which friends encouraged him to publish. Part of the purpose of the work was to pave the way for publishing his own thoughts, which were critical of Cartesianism. By producing such a work, he could not later be accused be accused of not understanding Descartes. The work appeared in 1663 and was the only writing of Spinoza’s published with his name on it during his life. Spinoza was many times given the opportunity to teach at the University of Heidelberg, however, Spinoza modestly rejecting the academic carrier in order to be free from any restrictions on his intellectual activities that might be made by theologians. Spinoza also rejected a pension offered him by Louis XIV, king of France, on the condition that he dedicates one of his

works to the monarch. Baruch Spinoza died of tuberculosis, apparently aggravated by his inhaling glass dust from lens grinding. During his lifetime and for a period afterward Spinoza influenced German idealism. Through men such Gotthold Lessing, Johann Gottfried von Herder, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, his work was scholarly hit in no time across Europe. Carl Marx, the father of Communism, liked Spinoza, the father of pantheism, for what he took to be his materialistic account of the universe. With all the works that Spinoza was known for his ?Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata? (1677 Ethics Demonstrated with Geometrical Order) had to have been his most popular, currently selling out his previous creations. Although opinions vary about Spinoza’s sources (at his death only

161 volumes were found in his small library), no one can deny the considerable influence of Descartes. On February 21, 1677 Baruch Spinoza died in The Hague of tuberculosis due to excessive glass dust inhalation. With the short 44 years that he lived on earth, Spinoza was feared and reviled as a dangerous atheist his life was nothing short of brilliant and exhaustive. I believe that this scenario is not foreign to any of the great revolutionaries of our time, with much triumph comes much sacrifice. Although Spinoza sacrificed much in his pursuit of the truth, his work was not recognized as great till during the middle of the 18-century when the world had evolved from their dark and simplistic comma. Today Baruch Spinoza is known as one of the world?s greatest rationalist who ever

lived. It is a shame that it took so long to elevate Spinoza to the height where he belongs.