Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T05:07:17.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Spinoza

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2009

Extract

February 21st will mark the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the death of Spinoza, which occurred on February 21st, 1677. The visitor to the Hague may still see, in the Paviljoensgragt, the small two-storied house in the top rooms of which Spinoza spent the last six years of his short life. A tablet placed under the top windows commemorates the fact. It was in these rooms that Spinoza completed his Ethica, which may perhaps be regarded as the greatest masterpiece in the history of Metaphysics. The house is in danger of being pulled down, and the Spinoza Society is endeavouring to secure it as a memorial to Spinoza, and a centre of philosophic studies. It is not so long since the house-breakers I had their way with the home of Erasmus in Rotterdam. It would be sad indeed if the abode of another of the greatest Humanists were to meet with a like fate. It is to be hoped that the revived I interest in Spinoza which we are witnessing now may take the I practical form of saving this precious relic, which may well serve to promote the peace and goodwill among men which Spinoza had so much at heart.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1927

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 4 Note 1 See, e.g., History of Old Testament Criticism, by Duff, Archibald,, D.d., who describes Spinoza as “ the prince of all students of Judaism and Christianity, and indeed of all essential religion ” (p. 84).Google Scholar

page 4 Note 2 E.g., Canon Wilson’s Evolution in the Light of Modern Knowledge, or Dean Inge’s Personal Idealism and Mysticism.

page 4 Note 3 See Journal of Philosophical Studies, vol. i. pp. 481 ff.Google Scholar

page 5 Note 1 Life, Mind, and Spirit, p. 26, etc.

page 5 Note 2 Science and the Modern World, p. 181, etc.

page 6 Note 1 The volume containing Spinoza’s Correspondence will be published some time this year by George Allen & Unwin. Also the Oldest Biography of Spinoza.