Modern day Judaism is split into several different fractions whose looks and values are very different. Though this has become the accepted standard in Judaism, it was not always that way. Freedom of religious thought in Judaism was looked at as an evil, and preaching these ideas could lead to excommunication from the community. This was the fate of one of the most relevant 17th century philosophers in today’s world, Baruch Spinoza. Though it is impossible to say if Spinoza would have been in support of one of the more liberal and free thinking sects of modern Judaism, this paper will argue that Spinoza changed the course of Jewish theology with his preachings and creation of the idea of the necessity of freedom of religious thought with his works the Theological-Political Treatise.
To understand the impact of Spinoza’s teachings it is important to first understand his place in the history of Judaism as well as the history of philosophy. Baruch Spinoza was born in 1632 in Amsterdam, where he grew up in a Portuguese-Jewish community. He excelled as a student and was being groomed to be a Rabbi, but was unable to finish his studies because he was needed to help run the family business. At the time when Spinoza was a student, a knowledgeable majority controlled the theology of religious Judaism, their rulings were final and their control was absolute. Those who would openly speak out against these rulings and accepted beliefs would receive the harshest punishments in Jewish circles, the writ of Cherem or excommunication, and that was exactly what happened to Spinoza in 1656. Though the “abominable heresies” for which he was excommunicated are unknown, the reasons are likely tied to the radical ideas he presents in his philosophi...
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... century and beyond. The Theological-Political Treatise is responsible for laying the foundation for which more liberal sects of Judaism stand on, even though Spinoza himself was not a secular Jew. Without Spinoza it is impossible to know if the Jewish world ever would have broken free from the shackles of singular religious authority.
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Nadler, Steven, "Baruch Spinoza", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/spinoza/ (accessed November 7, 2011).
Judaism is a religion that can be traced back as far as 2000 B.C.E. It was founded in Canaan and it has an estimated 14 million followers. The sacred texts that are associated with it are the Torah, Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures), and the Talmud. Judaism has influenced a variety of religions including Christianity and Islam. It promotes a single god belief for all Jewish people and the belief that all people are created in the image of god. There are a vast number of individuals who were influenced by the principles surrounding Judaism, and this dissertation will present the most significant figure in the history of Judaism, Moses Maimonides.
...Spinoza insists, it is nonetheless possible that two substances can be distinguished in virtue of them sharing an attribute and yet be distinct in nature by possessing an attribute not shared by the other. So, whereas substance A shares an attribute with substance B - namely, both share attribute C - the former differs in nature from the latter in terms of each one possessing an attribute not contained by the other. If the nature of Substance A is attribute C and attribute D, and if the nature of substance B is C and E, then it appears that the nature of each one, though each shares an attribute in common, is fundamentally distinct. So, it appears that Spinoza’s commitment to the thesis that no two substances share the same nature or attribute stands in error, and thus I conclude under the possibility two substances sharing an attribute while differing in nature.
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In 1517, he posted a sheet of theses for discussion on the University's chapel door. These Ninety-Five Theses set out a devastating critique of t...
Before Spinoza can explain the liberations from these passions he had to explain the strengths of the passions and what one can do to at least litigate the effects of being governed by passions. This lead to the detail discussions of virtue and what it really is and Spinoza’s new concept of what constitutes morality. This was coming out of the seventh century when virtue was defined as in acting in according to duties opposed on one by either a super natural source, for example God or a church. Or from even a modern stand point that if one has free will they must act in accordance’s ...
... FS 1953, Spinoza’s Definition of Attribute, Philosophical Review, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 499-513.
David Hume in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and Benedict De Spinoza in The Ethics run noteworthy parallels in about metaphysics and human nature. Spinoza and Hume share opinions of apriori knowledge and free will. For human nature, similar concepts of the imagination and morality arise. Although both philosophers derive similar conclusions in their philosophy, they could not be further distanced from one another in their concepts of God. Regarded as an atheist, Spinoza argues that God is the simple substance which composes everything and that nothing is outside of this simple substance. Hume rejects this notion completely and claims that nothing in the world can give us a clear picture of God. Hume rejects the argument from design
Kadivar, Mohsen. "Freedom of Thought and Religion."Current History (New York, N.Y.: 1941) Humanities Full Text. 2005. Web.
...ranscendence of God, and ascription of free will to human beings and to God. According to Spinoza, this features made the world unintelligible.