Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677), also known as Baruch Spinoza or Benedictus de Spinoza, was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish ancestry and one of the most original thinkers of the seventeenth century. Born in Amsterdam, he received a traditional Jewish education but developed views on God, Scripture, and religious authority that led to his formal expulsion from the Portuguese Jewish community in 1656. He supported himself partly by grinding optical lenses while pursuing philosophy outside universities and established religious institutions.Spinoza argued that God and nature are not separate realities but aspects of a single infinite substance governed by necessity. His major works include Ethics, Theological-Political Treatise, and Political Treatise. Through his writings on reason, emotion, freedom, biblical interpretation, democracy, and freedom of thought, he became a foundational figure in modern philosophy and the Enlightenment. Ethics, his most influential work, was published shortly after his death in 1677.
