On the Improvement of the Understanding

Benedictus de Spinoza

Baruch (de) Spinoza, also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin who was born and lived in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Enlightenment, Spinoza significantly influenced modern biblical criticism, 17th-century rationalism, and Dutch intellectual culture, establishing himself as one of the most important and radical philosophers of the early modern period. Influenced by Stoicism, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, and heterodox Christians, Spinoza was a leading philosopher of the Dutch Golden Age.