'Spinozist' used to be what 'Postmodernist' is now, the worst thing one intellectual could call another. For reasons explained in Jonathan Israel's fascinating The Radical Enlightenment,[*] there was, in 1680, a simple litmus test for intellectual and moral responsibility. You failed this test if you believed, as Spinoza did, that motion is intrinsic to matter, for that would imply that God didn't have to give it a nudge. From there it is a short step to Spinoza's conclusion that 'God's decrees and commandments, and consequently God's Providence are, in truth, nothing but Nature's order.'

LRB 31 October 2002 | PDF Download