Within Reason

Margaret Gullan-Whur Expelled from the Jewish community of Amsterdam for heresy, Spinoza (1632-77) was eventually reviled by all religious authorities for holding fast to his conviction that reason, not revelation, was the way to find the truth of God or nature. Gullan-Whur shows how Spinozas central philosophical beliefs developed within the context of his life and focuses on the philosophers attempt to act solely through reason in the face of personal and national crises.