Sub specie aeternitatis
By proceeding sub specie aeternitatis, Spinoza sought to arrive at an ethical theory that is as precise as Euclid's Elements.
Thomas Nagel, in The Absurd: Yet humans have the special capacity to step back and survey themselves, and the lives to which they are committed...
[7] Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: From all this it now follows that the content of ethical problems can never be discussed in a Christian light; the possibility of erecting generally valid principles simply does not exist, because each moment, lived in God’s sight, can bring an unexpected decision.
[9]John Rawls wrote, in the final paragraph of A Theory of Justice: Thus to see our place in society from the perspective of this position is to see it sub specie aeternitatis: it is to regard the human situation not only from all social but also from all temporal points of view.
[12] Luciano Floridi, in The Philosophy of Information: First, sub specie aeternitatis, science is still in its puberty, when some hiccups are not necessarily evidence of any serious sickness.
[15] Carl Jung, in Memories, Dreams, Reflections: What we are to our inward vision, and what man appears to be sub specie aeternitatis, can only be expressed by way of myth.
[16] Philip K. Dick, in Galactic Pot-Healer: The stewardess began setting up the SSA machine in a rapid, efficient fashion, meanwhile explaining it.
The mechanism, basically a computer, is attached via electrodes to both your brains and it swiftly stores up immense quantities of data about each of you.
[17] Ludwig von Mises, in Human Action: A Treatise on Economics: It is customary to blame the economists for an alleged disregard of history.
They do not bother about the fact that capitalism emerged only in the last two hundred years and that even today it is restricted to a comparatively small area of the earth's surface and to a minority of peoples.
Capitalism is, when seen sub specie aeternitatis, a passing phenomenon, an ephemeral stage of historical evolution, just the transition from precapitalistic ages to a postcapitalistic future.
Masaryk by Karel Čapek: Many modern man is afraid of death, he is too luxurious—his life is not great drama, he just wants to food and enjoyment; unbeliever is not there enough trust and dedication.
We are then, while in this life, living sub specie aeternitatis, as Spinoza was to put it, expanding our finitude to encapture as much of infinity as we are able.
An adequate idea, on the other hand, by showing how a thing follows necessarily from one or another of God's attributes, presents it in its "eternal" aspects—sub specie aeternitatis, as Spinoza puts it—without any relation to time.
[21]As a play on the expression, J. L. Austin puns on it in order to discuss the very fallibility of human knowledge: 'Being sure it's real' is no more proof against miracles or outrages of nature than anything else is or, sub specie humanitatis, can be.
