Tag Archives: Baruch Spinoza

bruegel: cosmic frailties

Much like Michelangelo, Bruegel created a symbolic colossus from the material of the human figure. But the two artists’ colossi resemble one another only in the monumentality of their weight a breadth. Michelangelo idealized man as the supreme intellectual and … Continue reading

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spinoza: two against nature

Alfred Rosenberg on the couch. The Spinoza Problem by Irvin Yalom opens up the old debate as to how  can one reconcile reason and revelation given that both are imbued with some unsatisfactory elements. Maimonides made a valiant stab to … Continue reading

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napoleon black magic: roads to moscow

The “hidden hand” gesture, international democracy based on property law, and the coming of an age of reason and enlightenment. A golden road leading to the seven pillars of the gates of wisdom?… The promise of the end of serfdom, … Continue reading

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spinoza of supermarket street: keeping the rules?

Imperfection. Logic, and a strong dose of rationality dictates that God, according to the Jewish definition, is non existent, or at best, absent when needed most. Yet mixed with this certainty of doubt is often a personal belief, a sort … Continue reading

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copernicus: voyage to some distant planets

Copernicus argued that the earth was merely one of several planets that circled the sun. It was the Copernican Revolution and it displaced man from the center of the universe. It was the first flowering of the first stirrings of … Continue reading

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copernicus: suddenly the heavens were not perfect

The Copernican Revolution. Moving the earth away from the center of the universe had its consequences… …the heretical runaway monk and pantheistic philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in 1600, though not for accepting Copernicanism. But his death … Continue reading

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darwin: doubting the fixity of species

…The folklore of scientific invention and discovery has left no striking tale of the revelation to Darwin of the clue of the origin of species, like Newton’s apple, Stephenson’s kettle lid, or Galileo dropping weights from the leaning tower of … Continue reading

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fish for souls: bait, hook and stinker

Graven images. Idols and idolatry. It was in part, the spiritual spark that contributed to a series of incidents that were intrinsic to an underlying conflict of the Thirty Years’ War.  Calvinist fundamentalists, a form of Christian Brotherhood, stormed churches … Continue reading

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start training and stop quarreling

Joseph Flavius writing in the time of King Herod described the jews as a fit and hardy people who partook in athletic activities much to the delight of King Herod who liked the idea of a fit workforce. In terms … Continue reading

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Priesthood of protest: dissent through the nine-hole

Church of the holy secular. Saints and prophets of the bibles of dissent.Strap-on sanctity. The purity of political sophistication. In part much can be blamed on Spinoza for this fine splitting of hairs that engrosses much of the dissent industry, … Continue reading

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