Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Surviving Death

Immortality, for Spinoza, is impersonal; I survive my necessary death to the extent that I have ceased identifying with that mere thing that I am, and identify with the whole intricate web I have assimilated in the knowing. The first-person point of view that I am is relinquished for the View from Nowhere, which is the same for all of us.
~ from Betraying Spinoza by Rebecca Goldstein, p.69 ~
Sounds very Taoist to me! I think it just goes to show that many of the underlying themes in Taoism aren't strictly far eastern. The currents can be found in the thought of westerners too.

We each struggle to comprehend what we can't possibly comprehend.

I think I'm going to like reading Spinoza!

2 comments:

  1. good stuff it seems, looking forward to more quotes..

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  2. Spinoza is one I want to read more of. (or read any of, seeing as how I haven't read any of him) It is true that themes similar to those in eastern thought are present in some western thinkers, but usually in those western thinkers who were harassed by the dominant Judeo-Christian authorities as heretics, such as Spinoza (excommunicated by the Jewish community) or Giordano Bruno (burnt at the stake by the Catholic Church).

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