I have been reading both a biography of Spinoza and some excerpts from his works. The following is from the Preface to Tractus Theologica-Politicus.
Humans would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favored by fortune: but being frequently driven into situations where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune’s greedily coveted favors they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to gullibility. The human mind is readily swayed this way or that in times of doubt, especially when hope and fear are struggling for the mastery, though usually it is boastful, over confident and vain.
Great stuff isn't it. The first sentence just grabs you as a clear statement of so much of what we all observe on a daily basis. I understand this is the first building block in a syllogism where Spinoza argues against both the Jewish and Christian concepts of God and thus is very powerful stuff. But his eye for the human condition is dead on.
It is for these ah-ha moments that I read philosophy. Never let your brain sit in idle.
No comments:
Post a Comment