Proposition 23 of Part v of the Ethics says:

A demonstration is offered. The scholium to the proposition adds that ‘we feel and experience that we are eternal’.

These views seem to form the apex of Spinoza's system, coming almost at the end of the Ethics as the apparent culmination of a long series of connected propositions. Although they are not particularly emphasised – Spinoza left his readers to decide what mattered – it would seem strange to imagine that they were not of importance to him.

To commentators, these views form the apex of his system in another way: as a pinnacle of difficulty, or a stumbling-block for the understanding. Some have just give up on Spinoza at this point, believing that he had extended himself beyond any rational defence or explanation of his position, lapsing into paradox or mysticism. Others have avoided the real problems of interpretation with rhetoric. Even Pollock, normally so lucid, offers no better than this: