Does that mean “a free person thinks that death is the worst of all things” or “a free person thinks less often about death than about any other thing”?
(The former doesn’t seem to have that much to do with freedom, so I’m guessing he meant the latter… in which case I agree with him, but probably not in the way he intended: yes, we won’t think about death very often once we’re free from it.)
I think he means that it is irrational to ponder death when those moments can be spent living life productively. Not sure if I agree—doesn’t the thought of one’s death often propel us to great action, while lack of such thoughts leads to complacency? Anyways here is the the proof from the Ethics:
Proof.— (67:1) A free man is one who lives under the guidance of reason, who is not led by fear (IV:lxiii.), but who directly desires that which is good (IV:lxiii.Coroll.), in other words (IV:xxiv.), who strives to act, to live, and to preserve his being on the basis of seeking his own true advantage; wherefore such an one thinks of nothing less than of death, but his wisdom is a meditation of life.
“A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.”
-Baruch Spinoza
Does that mean “a free person thinks that death is the worst of all things” or “a free person thinks less often about death than about any other thing”?
(The former doesn’t seem to have that much to do with freedom, so I’m guessing he meant the latter… in which case I agree with him, but probably not in the way he intended: yes, we won’t think about death very often once we’re free from it.)
I think he means that it is irrational to ponder death when those moments can be spent living life productively. Not sure if I agree—doesn’t the thought of one’s death often propel us to great action, while lack of such thoughts leads to complacency? Anyways here is the the proof from the Ethics:
Proof.— (67:1) A free man is one who lives under the guidance of reason, who is not led by fear (IV:lxiii.), but who directly desires that which is good (IV:lxiii.Coroll.), in other words (IV:xxiv.), who strives to act, to live, and to preserve his being on the basis of seeking his own true advantage; wherefore such an one thinks of nothing less than of death, but his wisdom is a meditation of life.