Monday, February 16, 2009

Eternal return



This is a condition a local philosopher refers to as "oingy-boingy". I am familiar with it myself. It has a long tradition.

The philosopher Spinoza wrote this in his Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione (ca. 1656-61), perhaps echoing Aristotle's broader suggestion that omne animal post coitum triste est:
Nam quod ad libidinem attinet, ea adeo suspenditur animus, ac si in aliquo bono quiesceret; quo maxime impeditur, ne de alio cogitet. Sed post illius fruitionem summa sequitur tristitia, quae si non suspendit mentem, tamen perturbat et hebetat.
For those of you without a classical education, here is Edwin Curley's translation:
For as far as sensual pleasure is concerned, the mind is so caught up in it, as if at peace in a [true] good, that it is quite prevented from thinking of anything else. But after the enjoyment of sensual pleasure is past, the greatest sadness follows. If this does not completely engross, still it thoroughly confuses and dulls the mind. (A Spinoza Reader, p. 3)

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