Deus sive natura: Spinoza and the spirituality in modern science.

Baruch “Bento” de Espinosa (1632-1677) was one of the first modern philosophers to introduce scientific and mathematic methods in his approach to religion, spirituality and nature. He criticised the Cartesian split between the outer world (res extensa) and the inner world (res cogitans), extension and thought, and developed a revolutionary concept of the One Reality. In his “Ethics”, based on geometrical patterns, he described a holistic model to find God in nature. Spinoza became a premature pioneer of System Theory and even Cognitive Science. Like Galileo in his catholic world, Spinoza lived in danger of life. He was banned by his Jewish community in the Netherlands and had to live as an outcast. Nevertheless, Leibnitz visited him (the later pioneer of infinitesimal calculus), and Einstein called him his only teacher and “the master of us all”! Besides this, Spinoza must have been one of the most modest and likable philosophers and scientists ever.