Jonathan Israel.
JONATHAN ISRAEL: SPINOZA BIOGRAPHY
SPINOZA: LIFE AND LEGACY (2023)
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Baruch Spinoza (born 1632) was the most prominent philosopher of the Dutch Golden Age. He was born in Amsterdam to a family that had fled Portugal for the more liberal Dutch Republic. His radical ideas led in 1656 to his permanent excommunication from the Jewish community. He then kept his distance from religious communities, and devoted himself to his philosophical work and to lens grinding. In his writings, Spinoza argued that there was no place for ecclesiastic authority in a democrati, secular state. He was also a persuasive advocate of individual liberty. His work remained highly controversial until and after his death in 1677 at the age of only 44.
Daniel Johnson, writing in The Critic, described Jonathan Israel’s biography of Spinoza as: ‘Monumental...a brilliant biography... Jonathan Israel has more than done justice to this ultimately elusive genius’. The Times Literary Supplement wrote of the book: ‘Israel has done a great deal to illuminate Spinoza's unwavering rationalism, drawing out its revolutionary implications and charting its clandestine dissemination and profound impact on European thought.’
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Jonathan Israel (born 1946) is a British historian specialising in the Age of Enlightenment and Spinoza’s philosophy. He read History at Queen’s College Cambridge, going on to obtain a D.Phil from the University of Oxford. He held posts at the University of Newcastle, the University of Hull, and University College London where he became Professor of Dutch History and Institutions. In 2001 he became Professor of Modern European History at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
