Day 23 · Q1: Self-Knowledge · January 23, 2026
Pause. Breathe. Begin.
I . L E C T I O
Baruch Spinoza
Ethics, Part III, Preface
“I shall consider human actions and appetites just as if it were a question of lines, planes, and bodies.”
C O N T E X T
Spinoza, writing in the 1670s, proposed something radical: study human emotions with the same detachment a geometer studies shapes. No moral judgment, no shame — just honest observation of what we feel and why.
I I . M E D I T A T I O
“Can you observe your own emotions without judging them — as if studying a natural phenomenon?”
I I I . S C R I P T I O
Write one sentence describing an emotion you felt today, as if you were a scientist observing it from the outside.
I V . C O N N E X I O
Spinoza's geometric approach to emotions is a method of self-knowledge that differs from both Socratic questioning and Stoic judgment-correction. Is detached observation a deeper tool than either?
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