Editing Rationalism (section)

====Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)====
{{Main|Philosophy of Spinoza}}
The philosophy of [[Baruch Spinoza]] is a systematic, logical, rational philosophy developed in seventeenth-century [[Europe]].<ref name=tws9904>{{cite news
| author = Lisa Montanarelli (book reviewer)
| title = Spinoza stymies 'God's attorney'&nbsp;– Stewart argues the secular world was at stake in Leibniz face off
| newspaper = San Francisco Chronicle
| date = January 8, 2006
| url = http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/08/RVGO9GEOKH1.DTL
| access-date = 2009-09-08
| archive-date = 2009-09-03
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090903233734/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/08/RVGO9GEOKH1.DTL
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref name=tws07dec212>{{cite web
|author = Kelley L. Ross
|title = Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)
|quote = While for Spinoza all is God and all is Nature, the active/passive dualism enables us to restore, if we wish, something more like the traditional terms. Natura Naturans is the most God-like side of God, eternal, unchanging, and invisible, while Natura Naturata is the most Nature-like side of God, transient, changing, and visible.
|publisher = History of Philosophy As I See It
|year = 1999
|url = http://www.friesian.com/spinoza.htm
|access-date = 2009-12-07
|archive-date = 2012-01-04
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120104193706/http://friesian.com/spinoza.htm
|url-status = live
}}</ref><ref name=tws07dec211>{{cite news
|author = Anthony Gottlieb
|title = God Exists, Philosophically
|quote = Spinoza, a Dutch Jewish thinker of the 17th century, not only preached a philosophy of tolerance and benevolence but actually succeeded in living it. He was reviled in his own day and long afterward for his supposed atheism, yet even his enemies were forced to admit that he lived a saintly life.
|publisher = The New York Times: Books
|date = July 18, 1999
|url = http://www.times.com/books/99/07/18/reviews/990718.18gottlit.html
|access-date = 2009-12-07
|archive-date = 2023-10-18
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231018123108/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/18/reviews/990718.18gottlit.html
|url-status = live
}}</ref> Spinoza's philosophy is a system of ideas constructed upon basic building blocks with an internal consistency with which he tried to answer life's major questions and in which he proposed that "God exists only philosophically."<ref name=tws07dec211/><ref name=tws908/> He was heavily influenced by Descartes,<ref name=tws07dec114>{{cite news
|author = Michael LeBuffe (book reviewer)
|title = Spinoza's Ethics: An Introduction, by Steven Nadler
|quote = Spinoza's Ethics is a recent addition to Cambridge's Introductions to Key Philosophical Texts, a series developed for the purpose of helping readers with no specific background knowledge to begin the study of important works of Western philosophy...
|publisher = University of Notre Dame
|date = 2006-11-05
|url = http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=8004
|access-date = 2009-12-07
|archive-date = 2011-06-15
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110615071049/http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=8004
|url-status = dead
}}</ref> [[Euclid]]<ref name=tws908>{{cite news
| author = Anthony Gottlieb
| title = God Exists, Philosophically (review of "Spinoza: A Life" by Steven Nadler)
| publisher = The New York Times&nbsp;– Books
| date = 2009-09-07
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/18/reviews/990718.18gottlit.html
| access-date = 2009-09-07
| archive-date = 2009-04-17
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090417015246/http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/18/reviews/990718.18gottlit.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref> and [[Thomas Hobbes]],<ref name=tws07dec114/> as well as theologians in the Jewish philosophical tradition such as [[Maimonides]].<ref name=tws07dec114/> But his work was in many respects a departure from the [[Judeo-Christian-Islamic]] tradition. Many of Spinoza's ideas continue to vex thinkers today and many of his principles, particularly regarding the [[emotions]], have implications for modern approaches to [[psychology]]. To this day, many important thinkers have found Spinoza's "geometrical method"<ref name=tws07dec211/> difficult to comprehend: [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] admitted that he found this concept confusing.{{Citation needed|date=June 2015}} His ''[[Masterpiece|magnum opus]]'', ''[[Ethics (Spinoza book)|Ethics]]'', contains unresolved obscurities and has a forbidding mathematical structure modeled on Euclid's geometry.<ref name=tws908/> Spinoza's philosophy attracted believers such as [[Albert Einstein]]<ref name=tws9903>{{cite news
| title = Einstein Believes in 'Spinoza's God'; Scientist Defines His Faith in Reply, to Cablegram From Rabbi Here. Sees a Divine Order But Says Its Ruler Is Not Concerned 'Wit Fates and Actions of Human Beings'.
| newspaper = The New York Times
| date = April 25, 1929
| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10B1EFC3E54167A93C7AB178FD85F4D8285F9
| access-date = 2009-09-08
| archive-date = 2011-05-13
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110513034043/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10B1EFC3E54167A93C7AB178FD85F4D8285F9
| url-status = live
}}</ref> and much intellectual attention.<ref name=tws9902>{{cite news
| title = Spinoza, "God-Intoxicated Man"; Three Books Which Mark the Three Hundredth Anniversary of the Philosopher's Birth 'Blessed Spinoza. A Biography'. By Lewis Browne. 319 pp. New York: Macmillan. 'Spinoza. Liberator of God and Man'. By Benjamin De Casseres, 145 pp. New York: E. Wickham Sweetland. 'Spinoza'. By Frederick Kettner. Introduction by Nicholas Roerich, New Era Library. 255 pp. New York: Roerich Museum Press. 'Spinoza'
| newspaper = The New York Times
| date = November 20, 1932
| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40A14F83A5513738DDDA90A94D9415B828FF1D3
| access-date = 2009-09-08
| first = Percy
| last = Hutchison
| archive-date = 2010-03-26
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100326014329/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40A14F83A5513738DDDA90A94D9415B828FF1D3
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref name=tws9910>{{cite news
| title = Spinoza's First Biography Is Recovered; The Oldest Biography of Spinoza Edited with Translations, Introduction, Annotations, &c., by A. Wolf. 196 pp. New York: Lincoln Macveagh. The Dial Press.
| newspaper = The New York Times
| date = December 11, 1927
| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60D1EFF395C147A93C3A81789D95F438285F9
| access-date = 2009-09-08
| archive-date = 2010-03-26
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100326014335/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60D1EFF395C147A93C3A81789D95F438285F9
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref name=tws9901>{{cite news
| author = Irwin Edman
| title = The Unique and Powerful Vision of Baruch Spinoza; Professor Wolfson's Long-Awaited Book Is a Work of Illuminating Scholarship. (Book review) 'The Philosophy of Spinoza. By Henry Austryn Wolfson
| newspaper = The New York Times
| date = July 22, 1934
| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0610FC395D13728DDDAB0A94DF405B848FF1D3
| access-date = 2009-09-08
| archive-date = 2010-03-26
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100326020800/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0610FC395D13728DDDAB0A94DF405B848FF1D3
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref name=tws9908>{{cite news
| title = Roth Evaluates Spinoza
| newspaper = Los Angeles Times
| date = September 8, 1929
| url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/370934682.html?dids=370934682:370934682&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+08%2C+1929&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=ROTH+EVALUATES+SPINOZA&pqatl=google
| access-date = 2009-09-08
| first = M E
| last = Cummings
| archive-date = 2010-03-24
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100324043102/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/370934682.html?dids=370934682:370934682&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+08%2C+1929&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=ROTH+EVALUATES+SPINOZA&pqatl=google
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref name=tws9906>{{cite news
| author = Social News Books
| title = Tribute to Spinoza Paid by Educators; Dr. Robinson Extols Character of Philosopher, 'True to the Eternal Light Within Him.' Hailed as 'Great Rebel'; De Casseres Stresses Individualism of Man Whose Tercentenary Is Celebrated at Meeting.
| newspaper = The New York Times
| date = November 25, 1932
| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D13F6355516738DDDAC0A94D9415B828FF1D3
| access-date = 2009-09-08
| archive-date = 2010-03-26
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100326020755/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D13F6355516738DDDAC0A94D9415B828FF1D3
| url-status = live
}}</ref>