1. Why is Spinoza such a controversial figure in the history of
In 1673, the Elector of Palatine, Karl Ludwig, offered Spinoza the professorship of philosophy at Heidelberg University in Germany, with the condition that he remain reasonably orthodox. ... Spinoza lived in an age of reason and philosophy, there was a strong belief that reason unencumbered by myth would yield universal truths to straight thinking people. ... It is therefore hard to see why denying that the soul is immortal would be the element of Spinoza's philosophy that attracted so much animosity. ... According to intellectual Jonathan Israel, Spinoza became, "the supreme philosophica...
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