Spinoza: A Life

by Steven Nadler

Overview

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) was one of the most important philosophers of all time; he was also one of the most radical and controversial. The story of Spinoza's life takes the reader into the heart of Jewish Amsterdam in the seventeenth century and, with Spinoza's exile from Judaism, into the midst of the tumultuous political, social, intellectual, and religious world of the young Dutch Republic. This new edition of Steven Nadler's biography, winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award for biography and translated into a dozen languages, is enhanced by exciting new archival discoveries about his family background, his youth, and the various philosophical, political, and religious contexts of his life and works. There is more detail about his family's business and communal activities, about his relationships with friends and correspondents, and about the development of his writings, which were so scandalous to his contemporaries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108442466
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/18/2022
Edition description:	2nd Revised ed.
Pages:	458
Sales rank:	456,481
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay, II, Professor of Philosophy, Evjue-Bascom Professor in Humanities and Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author or editor of over twenty books, winner of the 2000 Koret Jewish Book Award for biography with Spinoza: A Life (Cambridge, 1999) and a Pulitzer Prize finalist with Rembrandt's Jews (2004). His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Preface; 1. Settlement; 2. Abraham and Michael; 3. Bento/Baruch; 4. Talmud Torah; 5. A merchant of Amsterdam; 6. Cherem; 7. Benedictus; 8. A philosopher in Rijnsburg; 9. 'The Jew of Voorburg'; 10. Homo politicus; 11. Calm and turmoil in The Hague; 12. 'A free man thinks least of all of death'; A note on sources.

Editorial Reviews

"By reading this book, one can learn a lot about the man and his times, but also something about his philosophical and political theories. Nadler is primarily a political scientist, and he does a good job of relating Spinoza's ideas to the political and cultural environment in which he lived. This book is clearly written and exhibits impressive scholarship....Highly recommended for the libraries of schools where philosophy or political science is studied." Choice

"Scholars will find this work rigorous enough for them, but it was also written with the general reader in mind. Spinoza (1832-77) is a notoriously difficult thinker, yet Nadler has given us not only as detailed a picture of Spinoza's life as we are likely to see, based on the best recent scholarship, but also an analysis of Spinoza's ideas that the nonspecialist will find understandable and provocative." Leon H. Brody, Library Journal

"With eloquent sobriety and restraint, this biography of the Dutch-Jewish thinker whom Bertrand Russell called 'the most lovable of the philosophers' communicates much of its subject's rarefied spirit....Spinoza, so often sainted or demonized, at last receives a fine, measured biography." Kirkus Reviews

"Nadler's biography is superb, the best I know....He puts the extraordinary man with surprisingly naturalistic ideas against the historical background and in discussion with contemporaries as well as with the reader." Wim Klever, Emeritus Professor, University of Rotterdam

"A rich and illuminating biography of one of philosophy's most intriguing thinkers. Nadler deftly weaves together the details of Spinoza's life and thought, tracing his passage from the Sephardic community of his youth to the works of his maturity. The result is an exceptional book eminently readable and based on the best recent scholarship." Donald Rutherford, Emory University

"Nadler's Spinoza: A Life is a magnificent accomplishment which will serve as the 'standard' biography for the foreseeable future. In it Spinoza is set in a richly-detailed context which makes all of his works more intelligible than ever." Patrick Riley, The Boston Book Review

"Steven Nadler...offers a moving, sympathetic narrative of his subject's life, learned but concise analyses of the religious and political controversies of his time and a clear exposition of the major aspects of his thought. Mr. Nadler effectively challenges the sentimental myth that Spinoza was a meek and mild, out-of-touch, other-worldly recluse." William F. Gavin, Washington Times

"Steven Nadler...has now admirably filled the gap with his meticulous, measured and highly readable Spinoza: A Life." Anthony Gottlieb, New York Times Book Review

"[Nadler] has performed a great service in sifting through mounds of historical data about a well-known philosopher, whose insights are still cause for considerable debate." David R. Rosenfield, M.D., Jewish Herald Voice

"...Nadler focuses on Spinoza the man. he provides us with a thorough, engaging and contextualized study of a life that has been much alluded to and much mythologized, but which has hitherto eluded such systematic scholarly examination." The Jewish Quarterly

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