Thursday, December 08, 2005
' Ethics' - Spinoza
Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage : for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune ; so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse. Why this is so, and what is good or evil in the emotins, I propose to show...
When a man has purposed to make a given thing, and has brought it to perfection his work will be pronounced perfect, not only by himself, but by everyone who rightly knows, or thinks that he knows, the intention and aim of its author. For instance, suppose anyone sees a work ( which I assume to be not yet completed), and knows that the aim of the author iof that work is to build a house, he will call the work imperfect ; he will, on the other hand, call it perfect, as soon as he sees that it is carried through to the end, which its author had purposed for it...
But after men began to form general ideas, to think out types of houses, buildings, towers, and to perfer certain types to toher, it came about, that each man called perfect that which he saw agree wtih the general idea he had formed of the thing in question, and called imperfect that which he saw agree less with his own preconceived type. This seems to be the only reason for calling natural phenomena which, indeed, ar not made with human hands, perfect or imperfect.
-- Baruch Spinoza.
Amazon link for the book :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806505362/qid=1134045404/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-2818157-6951204?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Amazon link to the authors' books :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/002-2818157-6951204?url=index%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%22Baruch+Spinoza%22
When a man has purposed to make a given thing, and has brought it to perfection his work will be pronounced perfect, not only by himself, but by everyone who rightly knows, or thinks that he knows, the intention and aim of its author. For instance, suppose anyone sees a work ( which I assume to be not yet completed), and knows that the aim of the author iof that work is to build a house, he will call the work imperfect ; he will, on the other hand, call it perfect, as soon as he sees that it is carried through to the end, which its author had purposed for it...
But after men began to form general ideas, to think out types of houses, buildings, towers, and to perfer certain types to toher, it came about, that each man called perfect that which he saw agree wtih the general idea he had formed of the thing in question, and called imperfect that which he saw agree less with his own preconceived type. This seems to be the only reason for calling natural phenomena which, indeed, ar not made with human hands, perfect or imperfect.
-- Baruch Spinoza.
Amazon link for the book :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806505362/qid=1134045404/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-2818157-6951204?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Amazon link to the authors' books :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/002-2818157-6951204?url=index%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%22Baruch+Spinoza%22
