Baruch Spinoza was born into a Portuguese Jewish family in Amsterdam and was expelled from the community for his ideas. He lived modestly, grinding lenses, while writing the Ethics, organized like a geometry book. He defended freedom of thought and a view in which God and nature are the same thing.
Core ideas
God and nature are a single infinite substance
Everything happens by necessity, and freedom lies in understanding the causes
Freedom of thought and expression is essential to a healthy state
The tradition: Rationalist
A rationalist trusts reason to reach fundamental truths. Spinoza takes this to the extreme, deducing all of reality as if it were geometry.
