Professor Jonathan Israel
professor emeritus, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; author, Spinoza, Life and Legacy and Radical Enlightenment

Jonathan I. Israel is professor emeritus in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Considered one of the most distinguished and prolific historians of early modern Europe, Jonathan specialises in European and European colonial history from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century. His recent work focuses on the impact of radical thought (especially Spinoza, Bayle, Diderot, and the eighteenth-century French materialists) on the Enlightenment and on the emergence of modern ideas of democracy, equality, toleration, freedom of the press, and individual freedom. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Radical Enlightenment (2001), Enlightenment Contested (2006), Democratic Enlightenment (2011), and The Enlightenment that Failed (2019), all published by Oxford University Press.

In his new book, Spinoza, Life and Legacy, Jonathan presents a biography that provides more detail and context about Spinoza’s life, family, writings, circle of friends, highly unusual career and networking, and early reception than its predecessors. Weaving the circumstances of his life and thought into a detailed biography has also led to several notable instances of nuancing or revising our notions of how to interpret certain of his assertions and philosophical claims, and how to understand the complex international reaction to his work during his lifetime and in the years immediately following his death.

RELATED SESSIONS

Sunday 29 October, 17:15 Assembly Hall, Church House
Against fatalism: how can we create a new Enlightenment?