Addresses controversy around Spinoza.

12/3/21

This is a first-rate read. This tracks the major players in a
conversation about the viability of reason as the basis of philosophy and points out a number of people who were influential at the time but which have become eclipsed by later people. I had not realized, but should have, that the practice of philosophy then was so much like it is today - personalities as well as positions - and that they had all interacted with each other on both levels. Beiser does not stress the personal level, but doesn't hide it either. He gives concise summaries of positions and arguments which make the whole discussion a consistent story. Remarkably to me, the whole debate fit inside a 15 year interval and most of it within 10.

The issues being discussed, too, are of modern interest too - or at least I think they are. Being technology independent, the arguments are no less valid now than then - and no more either. ( )

great ( )