3 May

Spinoza has probably the coolest name of any philosopher. But his work isn’t widely known, although some rate him as the greatest philosopher of all time. In his own time he was considered a heretic, although he was a deeply sacred person and thought we misunderstand the sacred. His Ethics is one of the great works of all time. In his spare time he loved grinding lenses, which may have actually killed him at 44, from silicosis. A tiny sample of his ideas: “Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these men know that, once ignorance is put aside, that wonderment would be taken away, which is the only means by which their authority is preserved.” “Do not weep. Do not wax indignant. Understand.” “The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is.”