Friday, June 6, 2014

Mind, Parallelsim, Immortality

The possibility of a Mind surviving the death of its associated Body, broached by Spinoza at V, xxii-xxiii, seems more consistent with traditional Theological Dualism, than with the innovative Parallelism that he introduces at II, vii.  Now, the previously proposed reconciliation of the passages--the distinguishing, based on the example of 'non-existent' rectangles, from II, viii., between actual and non-actual entities--is unsatisfactory, because it does not adequately explain that distinction, i. e. each is equally a modification of Substance in his system.  Otherwise, the closest that he offers to a concrete grounding of the possibility of a disembodied entity is the example of an intuited ratio, in II, xl.  However, a ratio, disembodied or otherwise, is common to an infinite number of pairs of  numbers, whereas, the object of Intuition posited by him as surviving the death of its Body, is individual, i. e. is of "this or that human body" (V, xxii).  So, the best explanation of this concept of Immortality may be Wolfson's exhaustive analysis, which confirms that the concept is more closely aligned with Medieval Theology than with Spinoza's innovative Parallelism, an allegiance that, as Spinoza acknowledges at V, xli, is inessential to the main arc of the Ethics.

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