7 score and 4 years ago...

[wang_chi7]

Spinoza?

Oddly appropriate for this message board sometimes *grin*:

"The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.”

You won the prize! (I'm almost certain anyways)

[DanAS1]

Spinoza?

Oddly appropriate for this message board sometimes *grin*:

"The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.”

Indeed. Baruch/Benedict de Spinoza -- 1632-1677.

You can read all you want to about him on the Spinoza page of
http://www.danielspiro.com/

Spinoza-scholarship is another of my strange hobbies (and yes, anyone who regularly posts in this Message Board has a strange hobby).

[Canadian Viking]

Dan,

I must say that I have not read much Spinoza. Rather, I have usually seen his work discussed in the context of others (philosophy has never been one of my passions, although I do enjoy it). From the little that I know about Spinoza, it is interesting that a government lawyer would be interested in a philosopher who argued that all rights derive from the State. *grin* Power mad are we? hehehe

(BTW, I am just kidding... like you, I am a gov't lawyer in Canada. I'm on loan to a development bank, though.)

As for hobbies -- that could be a good thread. I think that I might start a new one on that topic....

Cheers,

Jay

[DanAS1]

Dan,

I must say that I have not read much Spinoza.

Jay

It's never too late to start. There's always the abridged version of the Ethics, edited by Dagobert Runes. (And available on Amazon.com.) It's not as rigorous a read as the unabridged version, but if you want an introduction that's brief, readable, and conveys the beauty of his greatest work, that's the one. That, more than his political writings, is what hooked me ... though yes, I've come to spend a lot of time with the Theological Political Treatise and Political Treatise over the years.