Spinoza the Outcast Thinker

Reviewed by: Nina Sachs - MLIS, Portland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 13, 2015

Review

Baruch/Bento/Bendict de (ironically meaning "blessedness" in Hebrew, Portuguese, and Latin) Spinoza was a 17th century philosopher born of Dutch Jews originally from Portugal. He had an unremarkable upbringing in the Jewish section of Amsterdam, then the most tolerant city in Europe. But by age 23, he had been cast out of the Jewish community for his heretical beliefs. As they evolved, these beliefs would come to deny the existence of God as the creator and judge of humans as good or evil. Moral concepts were meaningless aside from those meanings attached to actions by the individual. Heady stuff for the 1600s. In fact, Spinoza's philosophy is so modern in its nihilism that it causes spirited debate in classrooms and lecture halls today.Think existentialism. Lehman's brilliant and eminently accessible biography of Spinoza and his thought is an essential text for young adults beginning their own exploration of morality and the limits of religion, on the one hand, and logic on the other. This book will also stimulate debate about how students can be exposed to the central ideas of philosophy without treading on anyone's personal beliefs. Lehman sources her book extensively with end notes and bibliography. The illustrations are difficult to make out, but probably couldn't be reproduced and clearer without huge additional. One quibble: Lehman writes in her Epilogue, "It is impossible to underestimate the effect that Spinoza has had in our world."(p.218) Surely she means just the opposite. Recommended for CREAM/

Overall Book Score: excellent