Spinoza In 90 Minutes

Rating:
Summary: By "Spinoza in 90 Minutes" I understand:
Review: I. Spinoza is a strange and interesting philosopher. His life sticks out in the history of philosophy. He not only philosophized, but he lived his philosophy. Q.E.D.

II. After an assassination attempt, Spinoza managed to get excommunicated from the Amsterdam synagogue in 1656. Q.E.D.

III. Spinoza turned down prestigious university posts and instead made his living grinding glass lenses. At the same time he composed a classic metaphysical system that he also applied to a political system. Q.E.D.

IV. Spinoza was one of the first philosophers to claim that the aim of the state is individual freedom. Q.E.D.

V. Though Spinoza's metaphysics belong to a different time, it is an example of how a theory of existence can be applied to a manner of living and being. Q.E.D.

VI. This book provides a good but very short introduction to the life and philosophy of one of the most interesting philosophers in the history books. Q.E.D.

VII. Spinoza managed to live a very humble life and still attain fame and recognition in his own time. He corresponded with Huygens, Newton, Leibniz, and other eminent people of the 17th century. Q.E.D.

VIII. Spinoza's works were so controversial they were either not published during his lifetime or published anonymously shortly after his death. Q.E.D.

IX. Spinoza's metaphysical system was based on pantheism, which posited that everything and everyone is God, so that if you hurt another you hurt yourself. There are corollaries to the modern Gaia hypothesis in this. Q.E.D.

X. This book will leave you wanting to know more about Spinoza and why he wrote in a strange numbered aphoristic manner. It can be read in a single reading and will acquaint you with Spinoza and why he is considered important. Q.E.D.

XI. Read this book, then move onto more thorough studies if it catches your interest. Q.E.D.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Little Biography + A Bit of Spinoza's Philosophy
Review: Paul Strathern's "____ in 90 Minutes" are all quite similar structurally, so for all those who have read my reviews of them and notice the similarities, please forgive me. In this installment on Spinoza, Strathern focuses a bit more on the philosophical issues surrounding Spinoza than on biographical information, which was more characteristic of, say, his tiny works on Descartes and Kant.

It is useful to keep in mind that major exegesis is not the primary purpose of Strathern's series. If one looks on the back cover one discovers that Strathern offers "a concise, expert account of Spinoza's life and ideas, and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand the existence in the world." This is essentially all Strathern promises and, in my view, he delivers adequately.

Strathern focuses more in this tiny work on the actual philosophy than he usually does, but this is not to say that he ignores everything else, e.g., philosophical trends during Spinoza's lifetime, what environmental factors influenced him (geographical, familial, religious, etc.), Spinoza's impact on philosophy, and why, as Strathern puts it, Spinoza is "a philosopher's philosopher."

Only a few pages are dedicated to the actual words Spinoza wrote, but there is much worth reading in this little book - I was very happy to learn all kinds of things about Spinoza's life and works that I didn't already know, and Strathern offers a list of recommended readings for those who want to learn more.

If you're looking to learn Spinoza's philosophy inside-and-out, you shouldn't be looking for such between the covers of a book that is intended to take 90 minutes to read. For a light-hearted, enjoyable overview, look no further.