Tuesday, August 16th, 2005

Short Note: Yesterday we didn’t have an extra entry because there were no new donations here. Let’s hope that changes so we can get more translations out for all of you, and because I’m in desperate need for them. I hope you enjoy and have a great day!

In the morning I started to write Secrets. I did four pages, which is what I had foreseen. In the morning I might write two more pages. Playing with the chainings. What is a chain? A set of rings, each one of them obeys to a principle of circularity.

I spent the afternoon reading here and there. Specially Damasio. He instrumentalizes Spinoza’s ideas, specially the affectus, distinction between sentiment and emotion, which precedes it. A sentiment in a certain way is an emotion (or many) reasoned with. A negative sentiment isn’t fought with reason but with another positive sentiment. I remember the Viscount of La Rovère, who fought despair by accentuating it. Resignation isn’t a positive sentiment. Revolt is. I still don’t understand the conatus. Spinoza says “the persistence of the substance”, but I’m back where I started.

Day 1747

Translated by Jaime Grijalba