Philip K. Dick on Spinoza and the Kabbalah
[after having written several pages to Patricia Warrick about his sudden insight that Spinoza's philosophical theology was confirmed by the 3-74 Valis experiences]
Interestingly, Spinoza was influenced by cabalist thought; my Encyclopedia of Philosophy says: "a sixteenth century cabalist, Moses Cordovero, wrote in words which are almost reproduced by Spinoza: 'But the creator is Himself knowledge, the knower and the object known. His knowledge does not arise from His directing His thoughts to things outside of Him, since in comprehending and knowing Himself, He comprehends and knows everything that exists.' Thus Spinoza could and did legitimately claim to be developing one strain in the Jewish theological tradition."
I am excited, satisfied and pleased.
-Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick, 1980-1982 p. 56 (for the whole Spinoza bit see pages 51-56)
PKD would have loved Idel's article tracing Abulafia's influence on Spinoza:
ReplyDelete"Deus sive Natura - The Metamorphosis of a Dictum from Maimonides to Spinoza"
in "Maimonides and the Sciences" Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 211
Cohen, R.S.; Levine, H. (Eds.) 2000.