In this video, I look at the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) and the Historian Jonathan Israel's new interpretation of the Radical Enlightenment. Israel hopes to save the enlightenment from recent postmodern criticism by articulating the existence of a 'radical' movement, with Spinoza front and center, in which can be found the seeds of today's liberal-democracies.

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Reading List:

This video is primarily based on Jonathan Israel's 'Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750'
https://goo.gl/vzMJun

Spinoza's 'Ethics' is a heavy and largely esoteric read. For an introduction to his thought in general, this very short introduction is very good:
https://goo.gl/F1PPrv

Music:

Sonatina - Kevin MacLeod
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies - Kevin MacLeod
Wisps of Whorls - Kevin MacLeod
(incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...