Author Description

"Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) was one of the most important philosophers of all time; he was also, arguably, the most radical and controversial. Born into a Portuguese Jewish merchant family living in Amsterdam, Spinoza was banished from the Sephardic community as a young man, apparently for his heretical views." "This is 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 into the heart of Jewish Amsterdam in the seventeenth century and, with Spinoza's exile from Judaism, also into the midst of the tumultuous political, social, intellectual, and religious world of the young Dutch Republic." "Although 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 who has a serious interest in philosophy, Jewish history, seventeenth-century European history, or the culture of the Dutch Golden Age."--Jacket.