Reviewing a new, comprehensive account of the philosopher Benedict Spinoza’s life, thought, and intellectual legacy by the historian Jonathan Israel, J.J. Kimche finds it a work of “remarkable scope, granularity, and analytical depth.” The book, Kimche observes, adheres to a thesis Israel has stated repeatedly over the course of his career about the “centrality and lasting impact of what he terms the ‘radical enlightenment.’” The “radical thinkers” who belonged to this movement
sought to uproot all prevailing norms regarding religion, science, politics, freedom, and the relationship between individual and state. In Israel’s account, it was to this uncompromising intellectual tradition, which demanded nothing less than the wholesale reorientation of humanity from superstition to reason, that we owe the benefits of modern democracy, liberty, science, and human rights. At the apex of this tradition, which Israel venerates as the true genesis of modern civilization, he places the renegade Jew.
Spinoza, “the renegade Jew,” might not deserve quite so much credit in Kimche’s estimation:
Yes, it is perfectly true that numerous important modern intellectuals—such as Goethe, Shelley, George Eliot, and Einstein—lauded Spinoza and acknowledged his foundational influence. Yet it is equally correct to note that the history of modern philosophy constitutes an extensive rebellion against Spinoza’s austere, omniscient rationality.
A more balanced assessment of Spinoza’s legacy, therefore, must note that the Western tradition has decided against his particular brand of relentless rationalism, and has recognized that a satisfactory account of religion, ethics, and politics must include other modes of understanding. It is in this light that even the religious traditionalist could develop an appreciation of Spinoza—when he is read as one important voice in the polyphonic ensemble of ideas that gave rise to the principles and institutions that permit the creation of a harmonious society. Rationality, when tempered by the empirical, aesthetic, sentimental, and numinous facets of the human experience, is indeed indispensable to human flourishing.
Read more on First Things: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2024/04/spinoza-in-full