Baruch Spinoza Baruch Spinoza ( / b ə ˈ r uː k s p ɪ ˈ n oʊ z ə / ; [6] Dutch: [baːˈrux spɪˈnoːzaː] ; born Benedito de Espinosa , Portuguese: [bɨnɨˈðitu ðɨ ʃpiˈnɔzɐ] ; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677, later Benedict de Spinoza ) was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi / Portuguese origin. [5] By laying the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment [7] and modern biblical criticism , [8] including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, [9] he came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy . [10] Along with René Descartes , Spinoza was a leading philosophical figure of the Dutch Golden Age . Spinoza's magnum opus , Ethics , was published posthumously in 1677. The work opposed Descartes ' philosophy on mind–body dualism , and earned Spinoza recognition as one of We...