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Article: Spinoza, Baruch (Benedictus de Spinoza; 1632–1677)
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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SPINOZA, BARUCH (Benedictus de Spinoza; 1632
–
1677)
SPINOZA, BARUCH
(Benedictus de Spinoza; 1632
–
1677), Dutch philosopher. Baruch Spinoza's radical metaphysical, theological, moral and political ideas made him one of the most vilified thinkers of his day. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam to a Portuguese-Jewish family. He was raised and educated within the city's community of Sephardic Jews, many of whom had once been forced converts
(conversos)
to Christianity in Spain and Portugal. At the age of twenty-three, however, Spinoza, now a young businessman, was expelled from the congregation. The writ of
cherem,
or ban, the most vitriolic ever issued by the community's leaders, ...