Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein evoked Spinoza with the title (suggested to him by G. E. Moore) of the English translation of his first definitive philosophical work, "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus", an allusion to Spinoza's "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus". Elsewhere, Wittgenstein deliberately borrowed the expression "sub specie aeternitatis" from Spinoza ("Notebooks, 1914–16", p. 83). The structure of his "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" does have some structural affinities with Spinoza's "Ethics" (though, admittedly, not with the latter's own "Tractatus") in erecting complex philosophical arguments upon basic logical assertions and principles. Furthermore, in propositions 6.4311 and 6.45 he alludes to a Spinozian understanding of eternity and interpretation of the religious concept of eternal life, stating that "If by eternity is understood not eternal temporal duration, but timelessness, then he lives eternally who lives in the present." (6.4311) "The contemplation of the world sub specie aeterni is its contemplation as a limited whole." (6.45)