Spinoza

I knew Spinoza a few months after I was introduced to Kafka. (In this journey of philosophy the only significant other was Arthur Schopenhauer.)

Similar to Kafka, Spinoza did not live on philosophy; he lived for it. I love to imagine him polishing magnifying lens in the morning (which he earned his bread and butter) and working on his Ethics in the afternoon. He had many admirers but probably more antagonists, largely because he politely but stubbornly insisted on his view of god (or actually the church).

To summarize Spinoza's theory by the word "pantheism" is probably the worst example of jargon. God would not lift something from the earth against gravity - god is (alas, manifests as) gravity. Yes, I am sure Spinoza has hit on the bottom of the truth. It was an era before something called "logic" was developed, when big topics were explored, albeit with foggy language. Nowadays, workers on philosophy have clear thinking and precise language - but what's the good if excellent tools are used for trivia ?

Well, people are proud of having expensive Hi-Fi - even for Twins. I would prefer Mozart's sonata, maybe with a low tech cassette player.