Uriel da Costa
Uriel da Costa · Philosophy & Social Sciences
Portuguese philosopher whose critique of received religious authority, and the excommunications it drew, made him a landmark case in the history of freedom of thought and a forerunner of Spinoza
c. 1585, Porto, Portugal — April 1640, Amsterdam, Dutch Republic
Portugal · Hamburg · Amsterdam
Uriel da Costa is recognized among Jewish contributors to Philosophy & Social Sciences — Portuguese philosopher whose critique of received religious authority, and the excommunications it drew, made him a landmark case in the history of freedom of thought and a forerunner of Spinoza
Born a New Christian in Porto and educated in canon law, Uriel da Costa fled to Amsterdam and returned to Judaism, then found that the rabbinic tradition he met there did not match the biblical religion he had imagined. His Exame das tradicoes phariseas (1624) questioned the oral law and the immortality of the soul; it was burned, he was excommunicated more than once, and he was finally made to submit to a public penance. He killed himself shortly after writing the autobiographical Exemplar humanae vitae. His case became a standing reference in later arguments about freedom of conscience, and his questions anticipated those Spinoza would put a generation later in the same city.
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Source: Wikipedia — Uriel da Costa
Portuguese philosopher whose critique of received religious authority, and the excommunications it drew, made him a landmark case in the history of freedom of thought and a forerunner of Spinoza
Source: Wikipedia — Uriel da Costa
