Baruch spinoza brief biography of george washington

17th century philosopher (1632–1677)

"Spinoza" redirects here. For other uses, see Spinoza (disambiguation).

Baruch (de) Spinoza^[b] (24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin.

A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenment, Spinoza significantly influenced modern biblical criticism, 17th-century rationalism, and Dutch intellectual culture, establishing himself as one of the most important and radical philosophers of the early modern period.

Influenced by Stoicism, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes,^[16]Ibn Tufayl, and heterodox Christians, Spinoza was a leading philosopher of the Dutch Golden Age.

Spinoza was born in Amsterdam to a Marrano family that fled Portugal for the more tolerant Dutch Republic.

He received a traditional Jewish education, learning Hebrew and studying sacred texts within the Portuguese Jewish commu