Delight Springs

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Opening Day! (sorta) with Spinoza and Kierkegaard

Tuesday was virtual re-Opening Day for our school semester, today is virtual Opening Day for mlb. It's not the same, it's hardly a replacement, but we must find our silver linings where we can. I enjoyed tuning in to Game 7 of the Cubs' 2016 World Series win against the Indians yesterday, I'm looking forward to the "David Freese Game" of the 2011 Cards-Rangers World Series today. Retreating into the past has its pleasures too, when the future's on hold.

Meanwhile at Pandemic U., we're doing Spinoza today (slightly out of order temporarily, for no better reason I guess than to give me a thin excuse to recycle that stale old "Descartes before the horse" joke) in CoPhi, and Kierkegaard in A&P. What an odd couple, a blissful fatalistic rationalist (the "Lens Grinder") and an angst-ridden melancholy absurdist/irrationalist (the Faith Leaper).

Spinoza's God was Einstein's...
Image result for spinoza's god

Kierkegaard's was Abraham's.

Some of the best things Spinoza ever said:

  • “The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.”
  • “I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace.”
  • “I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.”
The best thing Kierkegaard ever said:

Image result for kierkegaard walking

If you like to listen, check out the marvelous stage production about Spinoza called The New Jerusalem (audible)... and Charlton Heston channeling my old Vandy classmate and Kierkegaard expert George Connell, in an installment of the Giants of Philosophy audio series.



1 comment:

  1. Crazy how this is a part of history we are going to tell our children. Our crazy, sad, and harsh reality of doing work online is nothing less than terrible, in my opinion.

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