William Magdalene

Student of Spinoza

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“Nor do I deny the utility of prayer [….] for those who are not hampered by prejudices and childish superstition it is the one means of obtaining the highest degree of blessedness.”

Spinoza (Ep. 21)

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“every past time is driven along by the time to come, and every time to come follows upon the past, and…all past and future time is created and begins its course from that which is present ever”

Augustine, Confessions 11.11

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“For every thing a cause or reason must be assigned either for its existence or for its nonexistence.”

Spinoza, E1p11 second proof

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“The cause for the existence of a thing must either be contained in the very nature and definition of the existent thing (in effect, existence belongs to its nature) or must have its being independently of the thing itself.”

Spinoza, E1p8s2

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“Intellectual or exact knowledge of God is not a gift shared by all the faithful, as is obedience.”

Spinoza, TTP 13

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“The intentions aimed at the surroundings always furnish a halo of intentions for the ‘possible’ appearances themselves.”

Husserl, Time 63

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“Your law is within my heart.”

Psalm 40: 8

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“reason, be it of the soundest, carries little weight with the common run of theologians”

Spinoza, TTP 5

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“But if God is recognized to have created nothing more precious than rational nature, for the purpose of rejoicing in him, then he is very far from allowing any rational nature to perish completely….God will accomplish with human nature what he began.”

Anselm, CDH 2.4

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“Many more ideas can be constructed from words and images than merely from the principles and axioms on which our entire natural knowledge is based.”

Spinoza, TTP 1

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“‘that simple obedience is a way to salvation’….not reason but revelation…can teach us that it is enough for blessedness or salvation for us to accept the divine decrees as laws or commandments, and that there is no need to conceive them as eternal truths.”

Spinoza, TTP n. 31

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“Who teaches us but the everstanding Truth?…when we return from our error, it is by knowing that we are returning, and that we may know, he teaches us, for he is the Beginning and he speaks to us.”

Augustine, Confessions 11

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“If you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding…then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

Prov 2:3-6

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“It is not, in the Word, that what was spoken came to an end, and then came something else, so that all things might eventually be spoken; but all things were spoken at once and from eternity.”

Augustine, Confessions 11

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“That it is consciousness of having-been-perceived belongs fundamentally to the essence of memory.”

Husserl, Time 59

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“He who does good from true knowledge and love of good acts freely and with steadfast mind, whereas he who does good from fear of evil acts under constraint of evil, in bondage, and lives under another’s sway.”

Spinoza, TTP 4

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“God forbade Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This seems to mean that God commanded Adam to do good and to seek it…from love of good, and not from fear of evil.”

Spinoza, TTP 4

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“If the desire to avoid a future evil is checked by the apprehension of another evil, so that a person doesn’t know what preference to make, then fear is called consternation, especially if both feared evils are of the greatest.”

Spinoza, E3p39s

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“We call the object of our desire good, and consequently the object of our aversion bad. Therefore it is according to their emotion that everyone judges or deems what is good, bad, better, worse, best or worst.”

Spinoza, E3p39s

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“It is when a thing is perceived by pure thought, without words or images, that it is understood.”

Spinoza, TTP 4

[William Magdalene @WilliamAJM]

“God’s affirmations and negations always involve eternal necessity or truth.”

Spinoza, TTP 4