Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi/Portuguese origin who laid the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe. Spinoza’s magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, in which he opposed Descartes’ mind–body dualism, has earned him recognition as one of Western philosophy’s most important thinkers. In this talk, Rabbi Mark Daniels will look at his “excommunication” from the Dutch Jewish community and discuss why he was so important in the history of Western thought.
Mark Daniels is currently Rabbi of Bristol Park Row Synagogue and course director of Judith Lady Montefiore College in London. He read philosophy at Warwick University and was Chairman of the Society for Jewish Study in London from 1999 to 2009.