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Thursday, December 04, 2025

Stone bricked in the wall of the Spinoza House in Rijnsburg



Ah, if all men were wise
And wanted good!
The earth would be a paradise.
Now she is most of a hell.

Dirk Rafaelsz. Camphuysen
(Dutch poet, 1586-1627) 

1 comment:

Paul D. Van Pelt said...

I suppose Spinoza was only re-stating the angst of previous generations, albeit with finer eloquence. Conscious beings are bound to be either happy; neutral; or miserable with their lot, by virtue OF that consciousNESS. If we were pre-conscious or even Edelman senior's notion of primary consciousness, there would seem to be an incapacity of realization/knowledge of the fact. We would be, uh, blissfully ignorant...one can't be unhappy with circumstances one cannot grasp. This may have amounted to one of the late Dan Dennett's *deepities*. I can't know, though. Never met him, nor have I read all of his work.