Baruch de Spinoza
God and nature are one and the same, everything happens by necessity, and freedom means understanding that necessity instead of fighting it.
Placement
God or Nature: there is only one single substance. Freedom lies in understanding the necessity from which everything follows.
Key ideas
- Deus sive Natura
- Monism
- Conatus
- Freedom of thought
Influence
Influenced by 3
Hasdai Crescas
influenced by ✓
In a letter to Lodewijk Meyer (1663) Spinoza cited ‘Rab Chasdai’ for a proof of God that holds even if the series of causes is infinite. B. Spinoza, letter to L. Meyer (1663); H. Crescas, Or Adonai; SEP “Hasdai Crescas”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Hasdai Crescas › c. 1340–1411
Niccolò Machiavelli
influenced by ✓
In the Political Treatise (1677) Spinoza called Machiavelli ‘most acute’ and suggested The Prince may have meant to warn a free people against entrusting itself to one ruler. B. Spinoza, Tractatus politicus (1677); SEP “Spinoza’s Political Philosophy”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Niccolò Machiavelli › 1469–1527
Thomas Hobbes
influenced by ✓
Spinoza took Hobbes’ thesis that natural right extends as far as power (Theological-Political Treatise, 1670), but kept natural right intact in the civil state (letter to Jelles, 1674). B. Spinoza, Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670); letter to J. Jelles (1674); SEP “Spinoza’s Political Philosophy”
Thomas Hobbes › 1588–1679
Influenced 20
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
influenced ✓
Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre (1794) put the absolute I where Spinoza had put substance, and Fichte saw in Spinoza’s system the consistent form of dogmatism. J. G. Fichte, Grundlage der gesammten Wissenschaftslehre (1794); Erste Einleitung in die Wissenschaftslehre (1797); SEP “Johann Gottlieb Fichte”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Johann Gottlieb Fichte › 1762–1814
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
influenced ✓
Hegel held that thinking must begin with Spinoza’s substance, yet in the Phenomenology (1807) demanded that the true be grasped not only as substance but also as subject. G. W. F. Hegel, Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807), Preface; Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie (1833), “Spinoza”; SEP “Hegel”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel › 1770–1831
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
influenced ✓
Schelling told Hegel in 1795 that he had become a Spinozist and presented his identity philosophy in Spinoza’s geometrical manner (Presentation of My System, 1801). F. W. J. Schelling, letter to Hegel, 4 Feb. 1795; Darstellung meines Systems der Philosophie (1801); SEP “Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling”
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling › 1775–1854
Friedrich Nietzsche
influenced ✓
In a postcard to Overbeck (1881) Nietzsche hailed Spinoza as his precursor, who like him denied free will, purposes, a moral world order and evil. F. Nietzsche, postcard to F. Overbeck, 30 July 1881; SEP “Friedrich Nietzsche”
Friedrich Nietzsche › 1844–1900
Henri Bergson
influenced ✓
In ‘Philosophical Intuition’ (1911) Bergson took Spinoza as his example of a simple intuition behind a complex system, felt beneath the geometrical apparatus of the Ethics. H. Bergson, “L’intuition philosophique” (1911), in La Pensée et le mouvant (1934); SEP “Henri Bergson”
Henri Bergson › 1859–1941
Louis Althusser
influenced ✓
Althusser drew on Spinoza for his concept of structural causality and said of himself and his circle ‘we were Spinozists’ (Elements of Self-Criticism, 1974). L. Althusser, Lire le Capital (1965); Éléments d’autocritique (1974); SEP “Louis Althusser”
Louis Althusser › 1918–1990
Show all (20)Show fewer
Johann Gottfried Herder
influenced ✓
In God: Some Conversations (1787) Herder defended Spinoza against Jacobi’s charge of atheism, reinterpreting his substance as the primal force active in all things. J. G. Herder, Gott. Einige Gespräche (1787); SEP “Johann Gottfried von Herder”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Johann Gottfried Herder › 1744–1803
Friedrich Schleiermacher
influenced
In On Religion (1799) Schleiermacher asked his readers to offer a lock of hair to the shade of ‘the holy, rejected Spinoza’, pervaded by the world-spirit. F. Schleiermacher, Über die Religion. Reden an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verächtern (1799), Second Speech; SEP “Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher”
Evidence: AI draft
Friedrich Schleiermacher › 1768–1834
Friedrich Hölderlin
influenced
In Tübingen Hölderlin made excerpts from Jacobi’s Letters on Spinoza (c. 1790–91), and ‘hen kai pan’, one and all, became a watchword he shared with Hegel. F. Hölderlin, excerpts from F. H. Jacobi, Über die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen (c. 1790–91); D. Henrich, Der Grund im Bewußtsein (1992)
Evidence: AI draft
Friedrich Hölderlin › 1770–1843
Novalis
influenced
Novalis called Spinoza ‘a God-intoxicated man’ and in his notebooks (1798–1800) engaged with Spinoza’s identity of God and nature. Novalis, Das allgemeine Brouillon (1798–99); Fragmente und Studien (1799–1800); SEP “Novalis”
Evidence: AI draft
Novalis › 1772–1801
Ludwig Feuerbach
influenced ✓
In Principles of the Philosophy of the Future (1843) Feuerbach read Spinoza’s identification of God and nature as a step from theism towards materialism, likening him to Moses. L. Feuerbach, Grundsätze der Philosophie der Zukunft (1843); Geschichte der neuern Philosophie von Bacon von Verulam bis Benedict Spinoza (1833); SEP “Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Ludwig Feuerbach › 1804–1872
Miguel de Unamuno
influenced
Unamuno built The Tragic Sense of Life (1913) on Spinoza’s conatus, the striving of each thing to persist in its being, read as the hunger for immortality. M. de Unamuno, Del sentimiento trágico de la vida (1913); B. de Spinoza, Ethica (1677), Part III; J. Marías, Miguel de Unamuno (1943)
Evidence: AI draft
Miguel de Unamuno › 1864–1936
Albert Einstein
influenced ✓
Einstein said he believed in ‘Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists’, not in a God concerned with human fates and actions (1929). A. Einstein, cable to Rabbi H. Goldstein (24 Apr. 1929); “Religion und Wissenschaft” (1930); M. Jammer, Einstein and Religion (1999)
Albert Einstein › 1879–1955
Lev Vygotsky
influenced ✓
Vygotsky turned to Spinoza’s monism against Descartes’ dualism of passions to seek a unified theory of emotions (Učenie ob emocijach, written 1931–33, publ. 1984). L. S. Vygotsky, Učenie ob emocijach (written 1931–33; publ. 1984), Eng. “The Teaching about Emotions” (1999); R. van der Veer and J. Valsiner, Understanding Vygotsky (1991)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Lev Vygotsky › 1896–1934
Erich Fromm
influenced ✓
Fromm took Spinoza’s Ethics as a model of humanistic ethics, in which virtue is the realisation of one’s own powers (Man for Himself, 1947). E. Fromm, Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics (1947); B. Spinoza, Ethica (1677)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Erich Fromm › 1900–1980
Arne Næss
influenced
Næss read Spinoza’s Ethics as a philosophy of active emotions and self-realisation and made it a main source of his ecosophy (Freedom, Emotion and Self-Subsistence, 1975; 1989). A. Næss, Freedom, Emotion and Self-Subsistence: The Structure of a Central Part of Spinoza’s Ethics (1975); Ecology, Community and Lifestyle (1989)
Evidence: AI draft
Arne Næss › 1912–2009
Gilles Deleuze
influenced ✓
Deleuze read Spinoza as a philosopher of expression and immanence and asked with him what a body can do (Spinoza et le problème de l’expression, 1968). G. Deleuze, Spinoza et le problème de l’expression (1968); Spinoza. Philosophie pratique (1970; 1981); SEP “Gilles Deleuze”; SEP “Baruch Spinoza”
Gilles Deleuze › 1925–1995
Antonio Negri
influenced ✓
In The Savage Anomaly (1981) Negri read Spinoza as the thinker of potentia, the constitutive power of the multitude, against potestas, the power of constituted order. A. Negri, L’anomalia selvaggia. Saggio su potere e potenza in Baruch Spinoza (1981)
Antonio Negri › 1933–2023
Hassan Hanafi
influenced
Hanafi translated Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise into Arabic with a long introduction (1971), taking it as a model for historical criticism of sacred texts. H. Hanafi (tr.), Risala fi l-lahut wa-l-siyasa (1971)
Evidence: AI draft
Hassan Hanafi › 1935–2021
Viola Cordova
influenced
In her dissertation The Concept of Monism in Navajo Thought (1992) Cordova compared the Navajo (Diné) concept of Holy Wind with Spinoza’s monism to interpret it. V. F. Cordova, The Concept of Monism in Navajo Thought (PhD diss., University of New Mexico, 1992); J. K. McNeley, Holy Wind in Navajo Philosophy (1981)
Evidence: AI draft
Viola Cordova › 1937–2002
Criticism
Criticized by 7
Anne Conway
criticised by
Conway charged that Spinoza confounds God and creatures in one substance, and distinguished three kinds of being: God, Christ and creatures (Principles, 1690, ch. 9). A. Conway, Principia philosophiae antiquissimae et recentissimae (1690), chs. 5–6, 9; SEP “Anne Conway”
Evidence: AI draft
Anne Conway › 1631–1679
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz influenced
influenced ✓
In 1676 Leibniz visited Spinoza in The Hague, showed him a proof that a most perfect being is possible and later annotated the posthumously printed Ethics (1677). G. W. Leibniz, Quod ens perfectissimum existit (The Hague, 1676); M. R. Antognazza, Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography (2009); SEP “Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz”
criticised by
Leibniz rejected Spinoza’s blind necessity, which leaves God neither choice nor goodness (Theodicy, 1710, §173), adding that Spinoza would be right were there no monads. G. W. Leibniz, Essais de Théodicée (1710), §§173–174; letter to Bourguet, Dec. 1714 (GP III 575)
Evidence: AI draft
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz › 1646–1716
Pierre Bayle
criticised by
Bayle called Spinoza’s single substance ‘the most absurd and monstrous hypothesis’: God would be both the Germans and the Turks killing each other (Dictionnaire, 1697, ‘Spinoza’). P. Bayle, Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697), art. “Spinoza”, remark N; SEP “Pierre Bayle”
Evidence: AI draft
Pierre Bayle › 1647–1706
John Toland
criticised by
Toland argued in Letters to Serena (1704, Letter IV) that Spinoza’s system lacks a principle, since it fails to explain motion, which Toland held essential to matter. J. Toland, Letters to Serena (1704), Letters IV–V; S. H. Daniel, John Toland: His Methods, Manners, and Mind (1984)
Evidence: AI draft
John Toland › 1670–1722
Immanuel Kant
criticised by
Kant objected that Spinoza’s single substance turns the purposive unity of nature into mere inherence and cannot explain purposiveness (Critique of the Power of Judgment, 1790). I. Kant, Kritik der Urteilskraft (1790), §§ 72–73; Was heißt: sich im Denken orientieren? (1786)
Evidence: AI draft
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
Moses Mendelssohn influenced
influenced ✓
In his Philosophical Dialogues (1755) Mendelssohn praised Spinoza as a forerunner of Leibniz, arguing that Leibniz had found pre-established harmony in his work. M. Mendelssohn, Philosophische Gespräche (1755); SEP “Moses Mendelssohn”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
criticised by
In Morning Hours (1785) Mendelssohn rejected Spinoza’s pantheism but argued that a ‘purified pantheism’ differs from theism in no point that matters for religion and morals. M. Mendelssohn, Morgenstunden (1785), Lectures XIII–XIV; SEP “Moses Mendelssohn”
Evidence: AI draft
Moses Mendelssohn › 1729–1786
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
criticised by
Jacobi judged Spinozism the only consistent philosophy of demonstration and therefore fatalism and atheism (Letters on Spinoza, 1785; 2nd ed. 1789). F. H. Jacobi, Über die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn (1785; 2nd ed. 1789); SEP “Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi”
Evidence: AI draft
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi › 1743–1819
Criticizes 2
Maimonides influenced by
influenced by ✓
Spinoza knew Maimonides’ Guide closely; H. A. Wolfson (1934) traced much of the Ethics’ vocabulary of God and the intellect to it and other medieval Jewish sources. H. A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of Spinoza (1934); SEP “Baruch Spinoza”
criticised
Spinoza rejected Maimonides’ rule that Scripture must be read allegorically wherever it conflicts with reason, which bent the Bible to Aristotle (Theological-Political Treatise, 1670, ch. 7). B. Spinoza, Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670), ch. 7; Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed II.25; SEP “Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise”
Evidence: AI draft
Maimonides › 1138–1204
René Descartes influenced by
influenced by ✓
Spinoza’s first published book, Principles of Cartesian Philosophy (1663), set out Descartes’ Principles in geometrical order, with his Metaphysical Thoughts appended. B. Spinoza, Renati Des Cartes Principiorum philosophiae pars I et II, more geometrico demonstratae (1663), with Cogitata metaphysica; SEP “Baruch Spinoza”
criticised
Spinoza called Descartes’ account of the mind steering the body through the pineal gland ‘more occult than any occult quality’ (Ethics, 1677, V, Preface). B. Spinoza, Ethica (1677), V, Praefatio; II P48–49 (against free will); SEP “Baruch Spinoza”
Evidence: AI draft
René Descartes › 1596–1650
Works
Historical criticism of the Bible and a plea for freedom of thought.
Definitions, axioms, propositions: God or Nature and the path to freedom.
Position
Spinoza’s Ethics, built like a geometry book, argues that there is only one substance: God or Nature. Mind and matter are not separate things but two attributes of this single reality, and everything follows from it with necessity – there is no free will in the usual sense and no purpose in nature. Every being strives to persist in its existence (conatus). We are unfree when driven by passions we do not understand; freedom is understanding necessity, and the highest happiness is the intellectual love of God. In politics he defended freedom of thought and the historical reading of the Bible. Long condemned as an atheist, he later inspired Goethe, German idealism and Einstein.
Life & context
Born in Amsterdam in 1632 into a family of Portuguese-Jewish merchants, Spinoza was expelled from the Jewish community in 1656 for his views. He lived modestly in Rijnsburg, Voorburg and The Hague, grinding lenses and corresponding with leading scholars. He declined a professorship in Heidelberg to keep his independence. His Ethics was published only after his death in 1677.
Further main works
- Principles of Cartesian Philosophy (1663)
- Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (1677)
Appears in
As of November 2026 · Sources · Improve this page · How Agora is made