He was banned from the Portuguese-Jewish community and maligned as a ‘godless man’, but his philosophy survived the ages. The seventeenth-century philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza has been chosen this year as one of the icons of Amsterdam ’World Book Capital’.

The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica has devoted an exhibition to the life and work of the freethinker.

Amsterdam can call itself ’ ’World Book Capital’ for a year. Since 2001, Unesco, the United Nations’ cultural arm, has been awarding this title annually to cities committed to the promotion of the book, and with it freedom of thought and expression in word and writing, as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Cities like Turin, Montreal, Antwerp and last year Bogotá have preceded Amsterdam. Amsterdam – since the seventeenth century a tolerant haven and a sanctuary for writers, printers and readers – placed great emphasis in its prospectus on freedom of expression, which won it this year’s Unesco election. Not surprisingly, the theme of Amsterdam World Book Capital is: ‘Open Book, Open Mind’.

The World Book Capital comes to life in poetry competitions, symposia and poetry manifestations in Amsterdam’s city parks. The Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica is also one of the particicpants. After having organized a day of reflection on Benedictus (Baruch) de Spinoza (1632-1677) in the Westerkerk on 27 June, the library continued with an exhibition called ’Libertas philosophandi, Spinoza as guide for a free world’ in honour of the philosopher – together with Anne Frank and Annie M. G. Schmidt the icon of Amsterdam World Book Capital.

Half of the works on show were published in Amsterdam. Not a coincidence, because in Spinoza’s Amsterdam there was an atmosphere of relative tolerance and freedom of thought. ‘Books were printed here which could not be printed in France, because of that country’s preventive censorship‘, says Cis van Heertum, who is responsible for the exhibition together with the Vereniging Het Spinozahuis. ‘Also, Amsterdam printers had a very good name.’

All the same, we should not exaggerate the tolerance in the Dutch Republic at the time, she adds by way of qualification. It was a relative tolerance: Spinoza could not publish his Theological-political treatise under his own name in 1670. Four years later, two years after the ‘disaster year’ 1672 (when the De Witt brothers were murdered and Willem iii became stadholder) his work was prohibited by the States of Holland under pressure from the theologians. Van Heertum: ‘There may not have been preventive censorship in the Republic, but there were definitely repressive measures.’

The Spinoza exhibition offers a view into Spinoza’s life and work and shows works by both advocates and opponents. A concise guide gives the visitor extra information about the manuscripts and books on show.
Spinoza lived in Amsterdam until the end of the 1650s. He was also educated in that city. Together with his brother Isaac he was admitted as a member of the (still existing) Portuguese-Jewish community and educational institution Ets Haim.

He attended the lower classes of the Talmud Torah school and also visited the Latin school of Franciscus van den Enden, a former Jesuit from Antwerp and an admirer of the philosophy of René Descartes. The first and only work which Spinoza published under his own name was an introduction to the philosophy of Descartes, in 1663.

This work, Renati des Cartes principiorum philosophiae, and its Dutch translation by Pieter Balling (1664), are to be seen in the exhibition. According to Pierre Bayle and Johannes Colerus, two of Spinoza’s earliest biographers, Van den Enden also taught atheist principles, an opinion shared by Willem Goeree (1635-1711), a bookseller who had known Van den Enden personally. Goeree claimed that Spinoza had sucked from Van den Enden ’few sound principles; as the latter was eager to hawk his atheist principles to all and sundry’.

In July 1656 the leaders of the Portuguese-Jewish community placed Baruch de Spinoza under a ban. This herem (ban) speaks of his ‘horrible heresies’ and his ‘awful deeds’, but it is still unclear why he was punished so harshly, says Van Heertum. Spinoza latinised his name Baruch – Hebrew for ‘blessed’ – from then on he was known as Benedictus. After the ban was pronounced in 1656 – at the time Spinoza was trading in dried fruit and other overseas produce with his brother Gabriel – the philosopher never returned to the Jewish fold.

We are standing before the first showcase featuring the membership list of Ets Haim. A few names have been deleted, with precise calm strokes, but it is obvious that the name of Baruch de Spinoza was erased with considerable ferocity. ‘There is much drama to this story’, Van Heertum recounts. Spinoza became a social outcast, his fellow Jews were not allowed to approach him within a distance of four yards. Yet apparently he never took steps to have the ban revoked.’

There are also works by Franciscus van den Enden, published anonymously because of repressive censorship. Had Van den Enden published one of the works, Vrye politijke stellingen, en consideratien van staat (Free political propositions and considerations of state), under his own name, he would have risked, according to Van Heertum, at least a heavy fine, perhaps even banishment. In this work he propagated the importance of reason as an ultimate criterion. According to Van den Enden faith, too, should be informed by reason.

Another claim in these Propositions is that people are suppressed by the authorities, who wish to enforce slavish obedience, and by the theologians, who are intent on instilling a sense of sin. Van den Enden ended his life on the gallows, in Paris, after he had been arrested for his involvement in a conspiracy against the despotic reign of Louis xiv.

His views match those of Spinoza, likewise a strong advocate of reason, who opposed the power theologians wielded in the state. Spinoza was attacked most of all because of his idea of God, a very subtle view which was regarded by most of his contemparies as too radical. He rejected the traditional view of God he believed to be false and offered guidelines for an individual understanding of God, nature and the origin of the human mind.

Spinoza departed from the assumption that the human mind naturally possesses ’adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God’.

Spinoza was regarded as a ‘godless man’, but his alleged atheism is hard to reconcile with his conviction that everyhting that is, is in God and cannot exist nor be understood without God (Ethica).
In his Tractatus theologico politicus, Spinoza writes that the revealed word of God is not laid down in a few books but consists of the simple understanding of the divine mind. Natural reason, according to Spinoza, is better able to contribute to this understanding than, for instance, the Bible.

Spinoza also wanted to make clear that understanding and obeying God does not depend on one’s professed religion: ’A man’s faith, that is the question whether he is pious or godless, can only be judged by his actions. In this way everyone may obey God sincerely and freely and justice and love only will be esteemed by all.’ Van Heertum: ‘These two moral values which Spinoza proposed, solidarity and justice, are values to be found in the Tenach. According to him everyone was able to exercise these virtues, regardless of his belief.’

Adriaen Koerbagh was one of Spinoza’s friends who in effect died for his beliefs. He shared Spinoza’s conviction that God and nature are one and he fiercely opposed superstition. ’Superstition’, he wrote in his Een bloemhof van allerley lieflijkheyd (A garden filled with all manner of loveliness), ’that is, when one believes more than reason tells us to believe’. According to Koerbagh, Jesus was not a divine saviour, but wished to lift men from their state of ignorance and lead them to knowledge, wisdom and insight. Koerbagh did not care for revealed religion and the authority of the established churches.

Everardus van Eerde, the printer of his Een ligt schijnende in duystere plaatsen (A light shining in dark places, 1668) denounced Koerbagh to the authorities. During the interrogations, Koerbagh was asked about his connection with Spinoza. He was sentenced to ten years’ hard labour, followed by ten years of exile and a considerable fine. Within a year he succumbed to the harsh circumstances of the prison regime.

None of the books which Spinoza owned have so far come to light, but there is an inventory of Spinoza’s estate. A few of the books, in the domains of philosophy, biblical criticism and politics (Descartes, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, Pieter de la Court), are also to be seen in the exhibition.
Then there are letters to and by Spinoza. He corresponded with the scientist Henry Oldenburg and with Christiaan Huygens, whom he also visited at his country seat Hofwijk near Voorburg, a place in the vicinity of The Hague where Spinoza moved to in 1663. One of the finest pieces in the exhibition is the rare first edition of Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus of 1670, published in Amsterdam by Jan Rieuwertsz under the fictitious name Henricus Künraht.

Spinoza’s Opera posthuma suffered the same fate as the Tractatus, namely to be prohibited by the States of Holland in 1679. He completed his main work, the Ethica, in 1675, but he decided against publication because he was informed that the theologians were out to get him. It was not published until after his death, as part of the Opera posthuma.

MoralMoroccan : Spinoza was a ‘reasonably OK guy’
In May this year MoralMoroccan  Youssouf K and his mate Fat Ferrie produced a philosophical rap on Spinoza, reason and freedom of thought and expression.  Spinoza was ’a fairly reasonable OK guy’, MoralMoroccan raps, counselling his audience: be free in what you think, form your own opinion and express it. However, you must think carefully how to put things into words.

Youssouf K and Fat Ferrie produce monthly raps about current themes. Their philosophical raps fit in with the Trouw series on exemplary living, virtues in which to excel. The series is featured in the paper edition and on the webpage Meer!.

Translation of an article by Cokky van Limpt which appeared in Trouw, 14 August 2008