Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin who was born in Amsterdam and lived in the Dutch Republic, and he wrote the Ethics and the Theological-Political Treatise. He published sparingly to avoid persecution, and his works were published by friends after his death in 1677. He had been expelled from his Jewish community in 1656, and he supported himself by grinding lenses while he thought and wrote about God, nature and human freedom.