Editing Baruch Spinoza (section)

===Career as a philosopher===
====Rijnsburg====
[[File: Spinoza museum Rijnsburg 2.jpg|thumb|Spinoza's lodging in Rijnsburg, now a museum]]
Between 1660 and 1661, Spinoza moved from Amsterdam to [[Rijnsburg]], allowing for a quiet retreat in the country and access to the university town, Leiden, where he still had many friends.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=214}} Around this time, he wrote his ''Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being'', which he never published in his lifetime, thinking it would enrage the theologians, synods, and city magistrates.{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=456}}{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=225}} The ''Short Treatise'', a long-forgotten text that only survived in Dutch translation, was first published by [[Johannes van Vloten]] in 1862.{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=330}} While lodging with Herman Homan in Rijnsburg, Spinoza produced lenses and instruments to support himself and out of scientific interest.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|pp=215-16}} He began working on his ''Ethics'' and ''Descartes' Principles of Philosophy'', which he completed in two weeks, communicating and interpreting Descartes' arguments and testing the water for his metaphysical and ethical ideas. Spinoza's explanations of essential elements of the Cartesian system helped many interested people study the system, enhancing his philosophical reputation. This work was published in 1663 and was one of the two works published in his lifetime under his name.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|pp=243-45}} Spinoza led a modest and frugal lifestyle, earning income by polishing lenses and crafting telescopes and microscopes.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=215}} He also relied on the generous contributions of his friends to support himself.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=305}}

====Voorburg====
In 1663, Spinoza moved to [[Voorburg]] for an unknown reason. He continued working on ''Ethics'' and corresponded with scientists and philosophers throughout Europe. In 1665,{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=264}} he began writing the ''Theological-Political Treatise'', which addresses theological and political issues such as the interpretation of scripture, the origins of the state, and the bounds of political and religious authority while arguing for a secular, democratic state.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=290}}{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=332}} Before the publication of the ''Theological-Political Treatise'', Spinoza's friend [[Adriaan Koerbagh]] published a book that criticized organized religion, denied the divine authorship of the Bible, and asserted that miracles were impossible—ideas similar to those of Spinoza.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|pp=309-11}} His work attracted the attention of the authorities, leading to his imprisonment and eventual death in prison. Anticipating the reaction to his ideas, Spinoza published his treatise in 1670 under a false publisher and a fictitious place of publication.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=314}} The work did not remain anonymous for long.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=339}} [[Samuel Maresius]] attacked Spinoza personally, while [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[Johannes Bredenburg]] criticized his conception of God and saw the book as dangerous and subversive.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=343}} Spinoza's work was safer than Koerbagh's because it was written in Latin, a language not widely understood by the general public, and Spinoza explicitly forbade its translation.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=346}} The secular authorities varied enforcing the Reformed Church in Amsterdam's orders to ban the distribution of the blasphemous book.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=344}}

====The Hague====
[[File: Spinoza House, The Hague (2016) 01.png|thumb|Spinoza's house in The Hague, where he died]]
In 1670, Spinoza moved to [[The Hague]] to have easier access to the city's intellectual life and to be closer to his friends and followers.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=334}} As he became more famous, Spinoza spent time receiving visitors and responding to letters. He returned to the manuscript of&nbsp;''Ethics'', reworking part Three into parts Four and Five, and composed a Hebrew grammar for proper interpretation of scripture and for clearing up confusion and problems when studying the Bible, with part One presenting etymology, the alphabet, and principles governing nouns, verbs, and more. Part Two, unfinished before he died, would have presented syntax rules.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|pp=375-79}} Another unfinished work from 1676 was ''[[Tractatus Politicus]]'', which concerns how states can function well and intended to show that democratic states are best.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=399}} Spinoza refused an offer to be the chair of philosophy at the [[University of Heidelberg]], perhaps because of the possibility that it might curb his [[freedom of thought]].{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=363}}

====Correspondence====
{{See also|Epistolae (Spinoza)|List of Epistolae (Letters) of Spinoza}}
Few of Spinoza's letters are extant, and none before 1661.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=xiii}} Nearly all the contents are philosophical and technical because the original editors of ''Opera Posthuma''—a collection of his works published posthumously—Lodewijk Meyer, Georg Hermann Schuller, and Johannes Bouwmeester, excluded personal matters and letters due to the political and ecclesiastical persecution of the time.{{sfn|Shirley|2002|p=755}} Spinoza corresponded with [[Peter Serrarius]], a radical Protestant and [[Millenarianism|millenarian]] merchant, who was a patron of Spinoza after his expulsion from the Jewish community. He acted as an intermediary for Spinoza's correspondence, sending and receiving letters of the philosopher to and from third parties. They maintained their relationship until Serrarius died in 1669.{{sfn|Popkin|1999|p=381}}{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=296}}

[[File:Spinoza Letter to Leibniz.jpg|thumb|left|Letter from Spinoza to Leibniz, with his BdS seal]]
Through his pursuits in lens grinding, mathematics, optics, and philosophy, Spinoza forged connections with prominent figures such as scientist [[Christiaan Huygens]], mathematician [[Johannes Hudde]], and Secretary of the [[British Royal Society]] [[Henry Oldenburg]]. Huygens and others notably praised the quality of Spinoza's lenses.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|pp=259-61}} Spinoza engaged in correspondence with [[Willem van Blijenbergh]], an amateur [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] theologian, who sought Spinoza's view on the nature of evil and sin. Whereas Blijenbergh deferred to the authority of scripture for theology and philosophy, Spinoza told him not solely to look at scripture for truth or anthropomorphize God. Also, Spinoza told him their views were incommensurable.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|pp=252-54}} [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] outwardly described Spinoza's work negatively but privately wrote letters to him and desired to examine the manuscript of the ''Ethics''.{{sfn|Stewart|2006|pp=11-12}} In 1676, Leibniz traveled to The Hague to meet Spinoza, remaining with him for three days to converse about current events and philosophy.{{sfn|Stewart|2006|pp=14-15}} Leibniz's work bears some striking resemblances to parts of Spinoza's philosophy, like in [[Monadology]]. Leibniz was concerned when his name was not redacted in a letter printed in the ''Opera Posthuma''.{{sfn|Buruma|2024|pp=166-67}} In 1675, Albert Burgh, a friend and possibly former pupil of Spinoza, wrote to him repudiating his teachings and announcing his conversion to the Catholic Church. Burgh attacked Spinoza's views as expressed in the ''Theological-Political Treatise'' and tried to persuade Spinoza to embrace Catholicism. In response, Spinoza, at the request of Burgh's family, who hoped to restore his reason, wrote an angry letter mocking the Catholic Church and condemning all religious superstition.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|pp=390-93}}

Spinoza published little in his lifetime, and most formal writings were in Latin, reaching few readers. Apart from ''Descartes' Principles of Philosophy'' and the ''Theologico-Political Treatise'', his works appeared in print after his death. Because the reaction to his anonymously published work, ''Theologico-Political Treatise'', was unfavorable, Spinoza told supporters not to translate his works and abstained from publishing further.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=346}}{{sfn|Stewart|2006|p=106}} Following his death, his supporters published his works posthumously in Latin and Dutch. His posthumous works–''Opera Posthuma''–were edited by his friends in secrecy to prevent the confiscation and destruction of manuscripts.{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=22}} He wore a [[signet ring]] to mark his letters, engraved with the Latin word ''Caute'', meaning "Caution", and the image of a thorny rose.{{sfn|Stewart|2006|p=106}}

====Death and rescue of unpublished writings====
[[File:Den Haag - Nieuwe Kerk - Burial Monument to Benedictus de Spinoza - Baruch de Spinoza - Benedict de Spinoza - Benedito de Espinosa.jpg|thumb|Spinoza's memorial plaque in the churchyard of the [[Nieuwe Kerk (The Hague)|Nieuwe Kerk]]. When he was buried, no tombstone or plaque was prepared. His vault was close to [[Johan de Witt]]'s remains.]]
Spinoza's health began to fail in 1676, and he died in The Hague on 21 February 1677 at age 44, attended by a physician friend, Georg Herman Schuller. Spinoza had been ill with some form of lung affliction, probably [[tuberculosis]] and possibly complicated by [[silicosis]] brought on by grinding glass lenses.{{sfn|Gullan-Whur|1998|pp=317-18}} Although Spinoza had been becoming sicker for weeks, his death was sudden, and he died without leaving a will.{{sfn|Israel|2023|pp=1150-1151}}{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=406}} Reports circulated that he repented his philosophical stances on his deathbed, but these tales petered out in the 18th century. Lutheran preacher Johannes Colerus wrote the first biography of Spinoza for the original reason of researching his final days.{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=1155}}

Spinoza was buried inside the [[Nieuwe Kerk (The Hague)|Nieuwe Kerk]] four days after his death, with six others in the same vault. At the time, there was no memorial plaque for Spinoza. In the 18th century, the vault was emptied, and the remnants scattered over the earth of the churchyard. The memorial plaque is outside the church, where some of his remains are part of the churchyard's soil.{{sfn|Israel|2023|p=1158}} Spinoza's friends rescued his personal belongings, papers, and unpublished manuscripts. His supporters took them away for safekeeping from seizure by those wishing to suppress his writings, and they do not appear in the inventory of his possessions at death. Within a year of his death, his supporters translated his Latin manuscripts into Dutch and other languages.{{sfn|Nadler|2018|p=409}} Secular authorities and later the Roman Catholic Church banned his works.{{sfn|Israel|1996|p=3}}{{sfn|Totaro|2015|pp=321-22}}