Curley, Edwin

Benedict de Spinoza (16321677) was born in Amsterdam, where his orthodox Jewish family had fled from persecution in Portugal. Expelled from the synagogue for his heterodox philosophy, he identified God with nature and denied the possibility of an act of creation.<BR> Edwin Curley is professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan and editor and translator of Spinozas <I>Collected Works</I>.<BR> Stuart Hampshire has taught at University College London, Oxford, Princeton, and Stanford.