This frugal, propertyless life undermined by illness, this thin, frail body, this brown,

oval face with its sparkling black eyes.

How does one explain the impression they give of being suffused with life itself, of having

a power identical to life?

In his whole way of living and of thinking, Spinoza projects an image of the positive, affirmative

life, which stands in opposition to the semblances that men are content with.

Not only are they content with the latter, they feel a hatred of life.

They are ashamed of it.

A humanity bent on self-destruction, multiplying the cults of death, bringing about the union

of the tyrant and the slave, the priest, the judge, and the soldier, always busy running

life into the ground, mutilating it, killing it outright, or by degrees, overlaying it

or suffocating it with laws, properties, duties, empires.

This is what Spinoza diagnoses in the world.

This betrayel of the universe and of mankind.

Hey everyone, this is Matthew again, coming to you from Chiboktook's

last Halifax.

And today I'm here with Brett to follow up on our last episode and to begin a discussion

about the thinking of Spinoza, also known as Benedict or Benedictus, this Spinoza, and

also again known as Bento, a Spinoza, by his friends in Amsterdam.

And part of the purpose of this episode, other than to get into Spinoza's philosophy,

which is, I'd say, can only be described as a joy machine, is to eventually lead us

to a discussion that Brett and I talked about having about the thinking of Jiled Deloze

...