What the sorrowful Jew of Amsterdam called the essence of the thing, the effort that it makes to persist indefinitely in its own being, self-love, the longing for immortality, is it not perhaps the primal and fundamental condition of all reflective or human knowledge?
Amsterdameko judu tristeak gauzaren esentzia deitzen zuena, gauza bakoitzak bere izatean mugagabeki irauteko darabilen ahalegina, buruaganako maitasuna, hilezintasun-antsia, ez ote da izango gogoetazko edo gizatiar ezaguera ororen lehenbiziko eta funtsezko baldintza?