faustus (03/25/83)
A new topic of discussion: I just read Spinoza's Ethics. He has a really fascinating philosophy, for those of you who haven't heard of it. He believes that what we call God, that which is perfect and eternal, cannot be concieved of in any sort of anthropomorphic terms whatsoever. God is synonymous with the Universe, and we are all small parts of God. Our bodies and minds are just small parts of two different ways of looking at God, as thought and as matter, and so there is no problem with mind- body dualism. Somebody suggested, in fact, that what Spinoza was looking for was, in modern terms, energy as the ultimate stuff of the universe, which is of course pretty modern. In his ethics he works out this theory (in terrible detail) and then goes on to show what the proper means of living are. Does anyone have anything interesting to say about this great work of literature/philosophy? I'd be interesting in discussing it. Wayne