The Essay - Enlightenment Voices - Spinoza - Part 3

Series focusing on the work of 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Dr Adam Sutcliffe from King's College, London explores the background of 17th-century intellectual life in Amsterdam and Spinoza's part in the birth of the Enlightenment. Amsterdam in the 17th century - like today - was a strikingly easy-going city. Spinoza's thought was shaped by the cultural diversity of the city of his birth and by the intense struggles over the relationship between politics and religion that raged there. The relative tolerance of Amsterdam enabled the highly creative fusions of Spinoza's philosophy; but his thought was spurred above all by his vigorous opposition to religious dogmatism and intolerance, both Jewish and Christian. Reader: Bruce Alexander.