Q0333
“We feel and know by experience that we are eternal.” — Baruch Spinoza (Ethics V, Prop. 23, Scholium)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: Ethics V, Prop. 23, Scholium. Theme: mind.
English
We feel and know by experience that we are eternal.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to Ethics V, Prop. 23, Scholium and files it under Rationalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Baruch Spinoza
Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza (1632–1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish descent who developed a rigorous geometric metaphysics of God-or-Nature. Excommunicated from Amsterdam’s Jewish community in 1656, he ground lenses and wrote in Latin with a small circle of freethinkers.
Interpretation
Spinoza's claim is epistemological rather than about personal survival after death. In the Ethics he distinguishes the duration a body has from the eternity belonging to the mind's adequate ideas, which are not measured by time at all. To know something truly is, on his account, to participate in that. The sentence therefore reports a kind of experience available now, not a promise about later.
Why it matters
Read this way it is about a particular kind of knowledge: the understanding that sees things as necessary is not the sort of thing that ages.
Concepts in this quote
- Mind
- Philosophy of mind asks what consciousness, thought, and mental life are—and how they relate to body and world.
- Experience
- Experience is the lived encounter with world and self—foundation or limit for knowledge, art, and ethics.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Baruch Spinoza. (n.d.). We feel and know by experience that we are eternal. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0333
MLA: Baruch Spinoza. “We feel and know by experience that we….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0333.
Chicago: Baruch Spinoza. “We feel and know by experience that we….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0333.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “We feel and know by experience that we…”?
The passage is attributed to Baruch Spinoza, Ethics V, Prop. 23, Scholium. The archive attributes this English wording to Ethics V, Prop. 23, Scholium and files it under Rationalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Baruch Spinoza mean by mind?
Dualism, materialism, functionalism, and phenomenological descriptions compete. AI renews old questions about understanding and experience. This passage enters that discussion through mind, experience.