Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinozawas a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi/Portuguese origin. By laying the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, he came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth24 November 1632
divine particular all-things
Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.
men careers giving
To give aid to every poor man is far beyond the reach and power of every man. Care of the poor is incumbent on society as a whole.
philosophical firsts virtue
The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.
silence peter
What Paul says about Peter tells us more about Paul than about Peter.
common sin natural
Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad.
ideas true-and-false adequate
He who would distinguish the true from the false must have an adequate idea of what is true and false.
men law broken
All laws which can be broken without any injury to another, are counted but a laughing-stock, and are so far from bridling the desires and lusts of men, that on the contrary they stimulate them.
wise men atheism
The proper study of a wise man is not how to die but how to live.
reality men giving
But if men would give heed to the nature of substance they would doubt less concerning the Proposition that Existence appertains to the nature of substance: rather they would reckon it an axiom above all others, and hold it among common opinions. For then by substance they would understand that which is in itself, and through itself is conceived, or rather that whose knowledge does not depend on the knowledge of any other thing.
care infinite falsity
We must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow.
doe influence effects
Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.
god order facts
Things could not have been brought into being by God in any manner or in any order different from that which has in fact obtained.
determination self self-determination
Freedom is self-determination.
thinking mind three
The things...are esteemed as the greatest good of all...can be reduced to these three headings: to wit, Riches, Fame, and Pleasure. With these three the mind is so engrossed that it cannot scarcely think of any other good.