In Chapter 35, you learned that many Enlightenment thinkers challenged old
beliefs with their new ideas. Baruch Spinoza was another influential
Enlightenment thinker.
Spinoza was born in Holland. His family was part of a community of Jews who had
fled Portugal during the Inquisition. The Holy Office of Inquisition was a
Roman Catholic court that tried to find and punish heretics, or those who held
religious beliefs in conflict with the church. Spain had established their
Inquisition in 1480. Portugal had done the same in 1536. Thousands of Jews were
put on trial, and many were killed. Many other Jews fled Spain and Portugal to
establish new Jewish communities elsewhere.
Spinoza was educated in the orthodox Jewish tradition, but he also studied the
works of Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, and other writers of the period. He
made a living polishing lenses for glasses. He became well known for his
liberal views in politics and religion. His independent ideas even led to his
excommunication from the Jewish community.
Below are short excerpts from an essay by Spinoza. He is writing about natural
rights, or the rights that belong to people “by nature”--that is, simply
because they are human beings. Which natural right is he writing about?
If men’s minds were as easily controlled as their tongues, every king would sit
safely on his throne, and government by compulsion [force] would cease [end].…
However… no man’s mind can possibly lie wholly at the disposition of another,
for no one can willingly transfer his natural right of free reason and
judgment, or be compelled [forced] to so to do.
For this reason, government which attempts to control minds is accounted
[considered to be] tyrannical, and it is considered an abuse of sovereignty
[independence] and a usurpation [taking by force] of the rights of subjects to
seek to prescribe [command] what shall be accepted as true, or rejected as
false, or what opinions should actuate [guide] men in their worship of God.
Source
Spinoza, Baruch. “Freedom of Thought and Speech.” Essay in
The European
Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche, edited by Monroe C.
Beardsley. New York: Modern Library Edition of Random House, 1960.
Investigating Primary Sources
Write answers to these questions about the excerpt from Spinoza’s
essay:
| • |
Which natural right does Spinoza write about?
|
| • |
What does he say about governments that attempt to control
people’s minds?
|
| • |
Do you agree with Spinoza? Why or why not? |
History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, Investigating Primary Sources
