The main point of Irvin D. Yalom’s The Spinoza Problem: A Novel (2012) is to explore the paradox of how a Nazi ideologue could revere a Jewish philosopher—and to use this tension as a vehicle for reflecting on identity, ideology, freedom, and the nature of the self.
The novel unfolds through two interwoven narratives:
- Baruch Spinoza, 17th-century Dutch philosopher, excommunicated from the Jewish community for his radical views on God, nature, and reason.
- Alfred Rosenberg, 20th-century Nazi ideologue, a chief propagandist of antisemitism and racial purity, who also became obsessed with Spinoza’s writings.
What is the “Spinoza Problem” (according to the Nazis)?
The Nazi “Spinoza Problem” was a real historical puzzle:
How could a Jew—Baruch Spinoza—be so “pure,” so “noble,” so “rational,” as to become the spiritual ancestor of German idealism and philosophical greatness?
To Alfred Rosenberg, this was troubling. In his racial ideology, Jewishness was equated with degeneration, deceit, and decadence. Yet German thinkers like Goethe, Nietzsche, and Fichte had admired Spinoza as a paragon of intellectual virtue.
So the Spinoza Problem became a cognitive dissonance:
If Jews are inferior by nature, how do we explain Spinoza?
Rosenberg’s (and the Nazi’s) twisted solution was to claim Spinoza was an exception—a “deracinated Jew” whose genius lay in transcending his Jewishness, thus reinforcing the myth that Jewishness itself was the problem.
Yalom’s Main Point in the Novel
Yalom doesn’t only narrate this contradiction—he dramatizes it:
- He portrays Spinoza as a philosopher of freedom, reason, and inner peace—a man willing to stand alone for truth, even at great personal cost.
- He portrays Rosenberg as a man consumed by ideology, resentment, and a desperate need for belonging, projecting his own insecurity outward as racial hatred.
In doing so, Yalom explores:
- The difference between inner freedom and ideological slavery
- The moral bankruptcy of racial essentialism
- The loneliness of the thinker, and the violence of the ideologue
- The timeless tension between reason and dogma
Ultimately, The Spinoza Problem is not just Rosenberg’s—but ours:
How do we live with contradiction?
How do we make peace with that which does not fit into our systems—philosophical, religious, political?
How do we face truth, when truth exiles us from the tribe?
If you’d like, I can help write a philosophical reflection or short talk titled:
〈什麼是納粹的 Spinoza 問題？自由與憎恨的差距〉
Let me know. I think it could deepen your 心理學的最後一章 seminar.
