L ontologia di spinoza biography wikipedia

Home Explore the BBC. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving. His theories were encapsulated in the formula "Deus sive natura" God, otherwise Nature. A Dutch philosopher born of Jewish parents his work Tractatus Theologico-Politicus infuriated Jewish and Christian scholars to such an extent that his next work, Ethics , was only published after his death.

In this he propounded the idea that free will was an illusion that would be dispelled only when man recognised that every event had a cause, one that stemmed from a "logical necessity" determined by God. His ideas had similarities to the Hindu belief of divinity in all things and people but Spinoza also drew many of his proofs from the geometrical perfection of nature, sharing with Descartes a mathematical appreciation of the universe.

Ontology vs metaphysics

As a rationalist he developed the ideas of Descartes and Plato, arguing against the duality of mind and body by suggesting that they were not two separate entities, but different aspects of the same substance. Her areas of research are early-modern philosophy, political philosophy and feminist philosophy. Other areas of interest include Heidegger, and the Existentialists.

Explore the BBC. Radio 4.