More specifically concerning: spinoza
dialogue in solitude
16 December 2007, around 20.47.
Once again, why Spinoza? When I was talking to Dime T. from Ohrid, Macedonia, one afternoon about parapsychology, he asked me: ‘Why do you think you are writing about Spinoza?’ Had it been a conversation with a philosopher, I would have said something like: ‘Because of his unique philosophy, because of his divergence from Descartes’ […]
27.iii.2022
27 March 2022, around 13.55.
‘Nothing whatever, except a harsh and dismal superstition, prohibits enjoyment.’ —Spinoza, Ethics, pt.IV, Prop. 45, Schol. 2 (trans. George Eliot)
31.vii.2022
31 July 2022, around 17.41.
‘It is not just a matter of music but of how to live: it is by speed slowness that one slips in among things, that one connects with something else. One never commences; one never has a tabula rasa; one slips in, enters in the middle….’ —Deleuze, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy
towards the mean
8 June 2023, around 9.28.
διὸ καὶ ἀπορήσειεν ἄν τις, τί δή ποθ᾽ οἱ μὲν ἰατροὶ βουλεύονται περὶ ὧν ἔχουσι τὴν ἐπιστήμην, οἱ δὲ γραμματικοὶ οὔ; αἴτιον δ᾽ ὅτι διχῇ γινομένης τῆς ἁμαρτίας (ἢ γὰρ λογιζόμενοι ἁμαρτάνομεν ἢ κατὰ τὴν αἴσθησιν αὐτὸ δρῶντες) ἐν μὲν τῇ ἰατρικῇ ἀμφοτέρως ἐνδέχεται ἁμαρτεῖν, ἐν δὲ τῇ γραμματικῇ κατὰ τὴν αἴσθησιν καὶ πρᾶξιν περὶ […]
modes and meanings
24 September 2024, around 18.47.
And many controversies have arisen simply from this, namely that men do not correctly explain their own meaning, or that they interpret incorrectly the meaning of another [person]. For in fact, when they most contradict each other, they either understand the same thing under different words, or a different thing under the same words so […]
scattered leaves
13 October 2024, around 19.23.
Hic sine dubio lectores hærebunt multaque comminiscentur quæ moram injiciant et hac de causa ipsos rogo ut lento gradu mecum pergant nec de his judicium ferant donec omnia perlegerint. Here, doubtless, readers will hesitate, and will urge many objections; and for this reason I beg of them to proceed with me by slow steps, and […]
21.x.2024
21 October 2024, around 18.51.
‘Sane sicut lux seipsam et tenebras manifestat, sic veritas norma sui et falsi est.’ —Spinoza (IIP43S)
verba usitata
21 October 2024, around 19.15.
Atque hinc porro clare intelligimus cur mens ex cogitatione unius rei statim in alterius rei cogitationem incidat quæ nullam cum priore habet similitudinem; ut exempli gratia ex cogitatione vocis pomi homo romanus statim in cogitationem fructus incidet qui nullam cum articulato illo sono habet similitudinem nec aliquid commune nisi quod ejusdem hominis corpus ab his […]
Adversaria (20)
30 November 2024, around 4.47.
‘The greatest opportunity anybody can have is to live in a free society as one among many who are fully capable of taking advantage of its freedom; but to take advantage of that opportunity, each must develop the cooperative virtues of good faith and benevolence’ —Alan Donagan (‘Spinoza’s Theology’ in The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza, […]
loose leash
7 February 2025, around 14.26.
My mind wanders from the moment, chasing down fragments and details, irrelevant to action, much as the dog likes to pause and sniff each frond and spore of the sword ferns that line the forest path. The vet at emergency services explains, in great detail that really contains no detail, the nature of the dog’s […]
the shattered mirror
26 February 2025, around 4.04.
The last time I read Goce Smilevski’s Conversation with Spinoza, I had not read Spinoza. I was not particularly interested in Spinoza. I was interested in Balkan fiction. I suppose I still am interested in Balkan fiction(s), but I am also, now, more interested in Spinoza. It was thus something of surprise to find, when […]
ascent
16 June 2025, around 8.31.
Bin guter Stimmung, habe wieder gearbeitet. Am besten kann ich jetzt arbeiten während ich Kartoffeln schäle. Melde mich immer freiwillig dazu. Es ist für mich dasselbe was das Linsenschleifen für Spinoza war. I’m in a good mood, worked again. I can think best right now when I am peeling potatoes. Always volunteer for it. It […]
tonic
27 June 2025, around 15.22.
True joy and happiness lie in the simple enjoyment of what is good and not in the kind of false pride that enjoys happiness because others are excluded from it. Anyone who thinks that he is happy because his situation is better than other people’s or because he is happier and more fortunate than they, […]
planavorel
11 September 2025, around 17.12.
It might have happened. I might have reached the stage of having too many reading projects. I say this because, as I worked through my morning books before starting the work day, nothing seemed like it was part of or in service of anything. While I was mildly amused by some of the books, a […]
fraxinus
12 September 2025, around 12.26.
I have noticed a passage in Euripides in which Jupiter is invoked without actually knowing what he is. It is admitted that he governs all things justly by occult methods, but he is found extremely difficult to know, and one cannot tell if he is the necessity of nature or human intelligence. What a faith! […]
proceedings
16 September 2025, around 14.53.
Besides the obscurity arising from the complexity of objects, and the imperfection of the human faculties, the medium through which the conceptions of men are conveyed to each other adds a fresh embarrassment. The use of words is to express ideas. Perspicuity, therefore, requires not only that the ideas should be distinctly formed, but that […]
middling sort
28 September 2025, around 13.38.
I have been told that several people claim, that I have not understood Spinoza’s theory at all. I have heard this from several quarters, but nobody has been able to tell me what those who make this judgment base it on. Thus, I cannot answer them precisely, or examine if I ought to give in […]
contrivances
7 January 2026, around 4.54.
‘St. John the Baptist (copy)’, by Hans Bildung, ca. 1511. Balancing the ledger of books for the year, looking ahead. Forecasting. Looking back, the past year was a busy one for reading, and I made some headway on some of my reading ‘projects’, although calling them that perhaps honors them with too much coherence – […]
motes and beams
11 February 2026, around 4.30.
When I was a child, I wanted to live in a pine forest. Or, to be more accurate, a pine plantation. […] The tight ranks of conifer trees, planted so close together that most of their branches die for lack of light, and which acidify the soil for miles around, are hated by ecologists, landscape […]