Spinoza in Amsterdam

Spinoza was born on November 24th 1632 in Amsterdam. His parents were Iberian Jews who had fled the Spanish Inquisition.

Holland's growing reputation as a refuge for free-thinkers was a significant contribution to the slowly dawning Enlightenment.

But the Jewish community (being particularly anxious not to offend their Dutch hosts) fiercely discouraged criticism of orthodox thought.

Spinoza was soon in trouble for daring to suggest that immortality, angels and an non-visible God were all highly unscientific, and nowhere mentioned in the Bible.

At the age of 23, he was ritually excommunicated from the synagogue, expelled from his father's house and (briefly) from the city.

After a short spell as a teacher, Spinoza became interested in the grinding of lenses and for the rest of his short life earned his living in the pursuit of this trade.

As the ideas of Descartes became clearer, Spinoza and his friends spent more and more time discussing them. And then, in 1660, he left Amsterdam for Rijnsburg, a small town near Leiden, to find some solitude in which to write.