Spinoza: A Life of Reason by Abraham Wolfson (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 711 rooted freedom in the area of man's weakness rather than his strength. " By dominating indifference the will is an image of God, by passive indifference it rather is an image of prime matter. Aquinas mentions a philosopher who ' most foolishly ' thought God was the prime matter. Without going so far many people handle analogical intellection so clumsily that they confuse free choice with passive indifference of the will." (p. 120) This is the main argument of the book. It is presented with extraordinary profundity and clarity mixed with that very attractive homely wisdom which made Professor Simon a marvellous teacher. The translation is very fine. In future editions perhaps another word for " indifference" could be found. The paragraph on page 100 beginning" But when there is a question of human action " is confusing, since it really shows a parallel between the practical and theoretical fields rather than the contrast Simon seems to have wanted to show. The word " nonvoluntary " in the last line of page 102 would better be rendered "nonfree" in keeping with what Simon rightly says on page 27 (at the bottom) about the voluntariness of the will's adherence to the comprehensive good. Mortimer Adler in his forward says of the book that it is the only major essay on free choice written in this century that illuminates the controversy between the determinists and the free-willists. I agree with that judgment. In a word, a superb book. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D. C. THOMAS R. HEATH, 0. P. Spinoza: A Life of Reason. By ABRAHAM WoLFSON. New York City: Philosophical Library Inc., Second enlarged edition, 1969. Pp. 347. $6.00. Dr. Wolfson's life of Spinoza has much to recommend it to devotees of Spinoza but relatively little that can be of value to the serious philosopher. Dr. Wolfson claims to have spent ten years in the preparation of this book, and the book certainly shows signs of painstaking research. Unfortunately , the book is devoid of footnotes, and the serious scholar is thus prevented from pursuing Dr. Wolfson's investigations. From a strictly philosophical viewpoint, any life of Spinoza is bound to have meager rewards. Spinoza's philosophy perhaps more than any other shows scant signs of philosophical forebears; this was undoubtedly due to Spinoza's eremitical temperament and way of life. Dr. Wolfson attempts to provide some philosophical background by offering a catalog of medieval 712 BOOK REVIEWS Jewish thinkers who presumably had some small influence in predisposing Spinoza towards his pantheistic monism. He neglects to mention the possible influence on Spinoza's thought by Renaissance thinkers such as Bruno. Moreover, in his attempt to justify Spinoza in the face of Cartesian attacks, he fails to do justice to Descartes' influence regarding method, terminology, and the very questions he attempted to answer in his system. Spinoza's life was his philosophy. Thus Wolfson's book is an apologia and defence of Spinoza's philosophy culled from his correspondence with various interlocutors, both friendly and otherwise. At every turn Spinoza is seen as one persecuted, betrayed or misunderstood, and in each instance Dr. Wolfson shows him to be patient, virtuous, kind, and supremely rational. But in many instances Spinoza's motives are derived from conjecture only. The book is bare of any colorful anecdotal material simply because, one would gather, Spinoza led a supremely dull life. Even this is interpreted as virtue by Dr. Wolfson. The result is that the book reads more like hagiography of the worst kind than balanced biography. Spinoza is Wolfson's saint, and he baldly admits it in his introduction. There is much evidence that Spinoza was something of a misanthrope and cynic, but Doctor Wolfson always manages a benign interpretation. The supreme example is a small anecdote about Spinoza taking pleasure in torturing spiders and flies. Wolfson attributes this to scientific curiosity, and he interprets Spinoza's reported chuckles as rueful outbursts inspired by meditations on the likeness between mankind and savage spiders. The author's style of writing is somewhat antiquated, full of quaint cliches. In spite of this, it reads easily. There is an adequate index and a skimpy and superficial bibliography. The...