Great people from Porto: Uriel Costa

Portuguese writer and thinker, born in Porto around 1580 and died in Amsterdam in 1640. He studied canon law in Coimbra. In 1615 he converted to Judaism, changed his name from Gabriel to Uriel and emigrated. Because of his ideas, which denied the immortality of the soul, he was disowned by his friends and family and eventually committed suicide. He had a great influence on Spinoza’s philosophical speculations through his deism, which rejected all forms of divine revelation. His works include Propositions Against Tradition (1616), Examination of the Pharisaic Traditions (1624) and Exemplar vitae humanae (1640), an autobiography.

Source: Infopedia