Birthday: Baruch Spinoza

Wanted to take a quick minute to acknowledge the birthday (birthweek) of Spinoza.  I remember reading him while in school.

It is amazing to me how his accomplishments in philosophy are vast and enduring.  I understand that,  Einstein, to paraphrase, remarked that if he believed in a God, believed in Spinoza's God.

A shortlist of mile-posts as much as I can glean:

- Was excommunicated by his community for his rebellious ideas

- Took on Decartes ideas, successfully

- Father of the European enlightenment- whose greatest pragmatic student was Thomas Jefferson (who happens to be one of two of my favorite US Presidents)

- Anticipated Freudian Psychology

- Acknowledged as the 'Prince of philosophers'. Ludwig Wittgenstein took a lot of inspiration for his work from Spinoza.

I have noticed that his philosophy and metaphysics echo in the Indian Philosophy of Vedanta (not exactly equivanent though) eventhough he did not study it like Schopenhauer did.

His rationalism is appealing to the intellectual in us, while Burkean empiricism is more appealing to the scientist in us.

I found an well written stanford university post on Spinoza

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/

Happy birthday monsiuer Spinoza, 'may your attributes and substance now be one!".