伟大哲学家英文版.doc

Spinoza By Roger Scruton Life And Character Benedict de Spinoza (1632-77) was born, lived and died in Holland, where his family, who were Jews from Portugal, had come as refugees from the Inquisition. He was brought up in the Jewish faith, but was anathematized for his heretical opinions, which had been acquired during a study of Descartes (1596-1649), the founding father of modern philosophy. Descartes too, although French by birth, had lived for most of his creative life in Holland. Thanks to Descartes and the Cartesians, and thanks to the intellectual freedom enjoyed by the Dutch Republic during the years following its successful revolt against Spain, seventeenthcentury Holland was, for a few precious decades, a centre of intellectual life, and the first home of the Enlightenment. Freedom of thought is more easily lost than won, and with the rise of Calvinism the tolerant regime of the Republic came to an end. In 1670 Spinoza published a Theologico-Political Treatise, to which he did not add his name, but which was soon discovered to be his work. This treatise defended secular government, the rule of law and freedom of opinion, and was richly illustrated by biblical examples that did not conceal the authors hostility to the government of priests and pharisees. The Treatise was banned, and its author briefly exiled from Amsterdam. In response to this confrontation with authority, Spinoza went to live in retirement among dissenting Christians. He retained an interest in politics, and made several hazardous forays into public life. He also began work on a second political treatise that he never finished. But he published nothing further, and his masterpiece, the Ethics, which had been circulating among eager students for some years before his death, appeared posthumously, and was promptly banned. Spinoza led a chaste and studious life, refusing the offer of a professorship at Heidelberg, and developing his thought through correspondence with other scientific and p