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Betraying Spinoza: the Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity Free FREE BETRAYING SPINOZA: THE RENEGADE JEW WHO GAVE US MODERNITY PDF Rebecca Goldstein | 304 pages | 11 Aug 2009 | Schocken Books | 9780805211597 | English | New York, United States Books similar to Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity InAmsterdam's Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza, and, at the age of twenty-three, he became the most famous heretic in Judaism. He was already germinating a secularist challenge to religion that would be as radical as it was original. He went on to produce one of the most ambitious systems in the history of Western philosophy, so ahead of its time that scientists today, from string theorists to neurobiologists, count themselves among Spinoza's progeny. In Betraying Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein sets out to rediscover the flesh-and-blood man often hidden beneath the veneer of rigorous rationality, and to crack the mystery of the breach between the philosopher and his Jewish past. Goldstein argues that the trauma of the Inquisition' s persecution of its forced Jewish converts plays itself out in Spinoza's philosophy. The excommunicated Spinoza, no less than his excommunicators, was responding to Europe' s first experiment with racial anti-Semitism. Here is a Spinoza both hauntingly emblematic and deeply human, both heretic and hero-a surprisingly contemporary figure ripe for our own uncertain age. On the face of things, reading a book about Baruch Spinoza is not an easy task for a religious Jew. After all, Spinoza is one of the great rationalist philosophers who started his "career" by annoying his Jewish community in Amsterdam so much that eventually it was decided to penalise him with the Jewish version of an excommunication. Spinoza went on to change his name to Benedictus Baruch in Hebrew and Benedictus in Latin mean "blessed"to learn Latin forbidden to Jews in those days and to develop a view of the world that equated God with nature, a big "no no" in Jewish theology. In many respects, Spinoza is considered to be the first secular Jew, or in the words of this book's subtitle: the renegade Jew who gave us modernity. Rebecca Goldstein is a Jewish professor of philosophy who wrote an autobiography of Spinoza. She opens the book by telling us about a childhood experience of hers: being "taught" about Spinoza by a religious teacher in her school. It was the understandably highly critical position of this teacher with regards to Spinoza that sparked her interest in the man and his work. Goldstein went on to study Spinoza in depth and teach courses about his philosophy and that of Descartes at university. She shares with the reader the love she has for the philosopher and her emotions at seeing her students slowly opening up to gain appreciation of his notoriously difficult writings. Most of this book tries to reconstruct Spinoza's life based on facts: what we know about him from his works and from what others have written about him. Goldstein introduces the reader to some of Spinoza's philosophy throughout the book and some parts are indeed heavy-going especially the discussion about his magnum opus: The Ethics. But it is towards the end of the book that her narrative turns to be really interesting. She breaks from the strictly academic approach and tries to imagine what Spinoza would have felt towards the end of his life. She uses a historical event - the opening of the main synagogue in Amsterdam - to tell us an imaginary tale about Spinoza coming back to watch the ceremony from a distance. We read about his throughts as he ruminated about the fate of this community of Portugese Jews who fled the inquisition in their country to find a new life in this relatively tolerant Protestant country. To me, the story of this community, which Goldstein explains at length and in vivid colours, was an eye-opener. It made a lot of what Spinoza wrote about clearer and put his philosophy in the right context. Betraying Spinoza, One Jew's journey for us all, Rebecca Goldstein has taken an interesting angle in her discussion on the rationalist Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity, Baruch Spinoza. She has couched his work as a result of a specific Jewish journey, that of Jews who immigrated to Amsterdam during the Spanish Inquisition. Goldstein calls that journey a world that "had acquired its distinctive characteristics by way of centuries-long exposure to what can go so tragically wrong in our efforts to justify our beliefs. Spinoza, as Goldstein realizes, railed against the very absurdity of his ancestor Jews' conceit that they were the "chosen people". But, Goldstein drags him right back to that world, one even his own had cast him Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity from in his early adulthood. I say this, not Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity criticism of Goldstein's book, but more in irony. For, to tell the life of Sipnoza is to delve into that very Jewish world Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity which he came. This Goldstein demonstrates quite well and she does so in a very approachable way. She gives us just enough of Spinoza's main concepts of rational thought that one "gets" it, but not so much that the book seems a mere rehash of the philosopher's work. It is a very interesting and quick reading tome that is recommended to "place" Spinoza in his times. Goldstein sums Spinoza's philosophical quest as that which might explain the "tragedy" that was his community's experience. He sought ti prove that our common human nature revels why we must treat one another with utmost dignity, and, too, that our common human nature is itself transformed in our knowing of it, so that we become only more like one another as we think our way toward radical objectivity. I am not sure how much Spinoza's work influenced John Locke's work, but his thought process is a precursor to the flight of freedom and liberty that was launched in as Enlightenment influenced thinkers launched the American Revolution, but his ideas were certainly in sympathy with that era of thought. Goldstein penned a fine book that will take the reader on an interesting and very personal journey to enlightenment. I loved this book. Not only I am fascinated by Spinoza, but Rebecca Goldstein does a fantastic job introducing him as a person, philosopher and Jew. She aptly describes his environment growing up, providing biographic elements in a manner that illustrates her various assertions about the reasons and implications of Spinoza's work. Her style is approachable and fluid and yet scholarly. It is clear that she knows much about the subject matter. This book was also the first one I purchased in the Jewish Encounters series, and I am happy I did it. The series is amazingly diversified, and the publishing is flawless. Highly recommended. Part biography, part philosophy, this book attempts to deal with the vastness of the Spinoza legacy from a personal angle - a sense of connection made during the author's years in an Orthodox Jewish high school. As a young philosophy professor, she was asked to teach a class on Spinoza, and set out to examine his body of work, a style of philosophy metaphysical divorced from her own analytical. She displays a passion for her subject and a true eagerness to discover the real Spinoza thereby betraying him, as the title of Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity book implies, because he believed in the total loss of the self. In spite of her passion, and my deep seated interest in Spinoza, I find the book to drag at times, though I can't put my finger on just why. I found myself thinking, come on, let's move on, but I couldn't identify any lack in style of writing or nature of text that created this sensation in me. It was usually at those times when Spinoza Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity absent from the story, as she filled in necessary background information, so perhaps that was why. It is important to understand the time and place where Spinoza lived in order to understand the man, but I do think perhaps there was a bit more information than needed, some of it rather peripheral, though it did pertain to Jewish history, which is at some level Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity to the Spinoza story. Overall, a decent introduction, but I would have like Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity have seen more of his philosophy and perhaps a bit less of his daily history. Here at Walmart. Your email address will never be sold or distributed to a third party for any reason. Sorry, but we can't respond to individual comments. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Customer Care. Your feedback helps us make Walmart shopping better for millions of customers. Recent searches Clear All. Enter Location. Update location. Learn more. Report incorrect product information. Rebecca Goldstein. Walmart Book Format. Select Option. Current selection is: Paperback. Free delivery Arrives by Tuesday, Oct Pickup not available. Add to list. Add to registry. Goldstein argues that the trauma of the Inquisition's persecution of its forced Jewish converts plays itself out in Spinoza's philosophy. The excommunicated Spinoza, no less than his excommunicators, was responding to Europe's first experiment with racial anti-Semitism. About This Item. We aim to show you accurate product information.
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