E2P35S
Scholium — Part II
Latin
In scholio propositionis 17 hujus partis explicui qua ratione error in cognitionis privatione consistit sed ad uberiorem hujus rei explicationem exemplum dabo nempe falluntur homines quod se liberos esse putant, quæ opinio in hoc solo consistit quod suarum actionum sint conscii et ignari causarum a quibus determinantur. Hæc ergo est eorum libertatis idea quod suarum actionum nullam cognoscant causam. Nam quod aiunt humanas actiones a voluntate pendere, verba sunt quorum nullam habent ideam. Quid enim voluntas sit et quomodo moveat corpus, ignorant omnes; qui aliud jactant et animæ sedes et habitacula fingunt, vel risum vel nauseam movere solent. Sic cum solem intuemur, eum ducentos circiter pedes a nobis distare imaginamur, qui error in hac sola imaginatione non consistit sed in eo quod dum ipsum sic imaginamur, veram ejus distantiam et hujus imaginationis causam ignoramus. Nam tametsi postea cognoscamus eundem ultra 600 terræ diametros a nobis distare, ipsum nihilominus prope adesse imaginabimur; non enim solem adeo propinquum imaginamur propterea quod veram ejus distantiam ignoramus sed propterea quod affectio nostri corporis essentiam solis involvit quatenus ipsum corpus ab eodem afficitur.
English (Elwes 1883)
In the note to II. xvii. I explained how error consists in the privation of knowledge, but in order to throw more light on the subject I will give an example. For instance, men are mistaken in thinking themselves free; their opinion is made up of consciousness of their own actions, and ignorance of the causes by which they are conditioned. Their idea of freedom, therefore, is simply their ignorance of any cause for their actions. As for their saying that human actions depend on the will, this is a mere phrase without any idea to correspond thereto. What the will is, and how it moves the body, they none of them know; those who boast of such knowledge, and feign dwellings and habitations for the soul, are wont to provoke either laughter or disgust. So, again, when we look at the sun, we imagine that it is distant from us about two hundred feet; this error does not lie solely in this fancy, but in the fact that, while we thus imagine, we do not know the sun's true distance or the cause of the fancy. For although we afterwards learn, that the sun is distant from us more than six hundred of the earth's diameters, we none the less shall fancy it to be near; for we do not imagine the sun as near us, because we are ignorant of its true distance, but because the modification of our body involves the essence of the sun, in so far as our said body is affected thereby.
Modern English
In the scholium of P17 of this Part I explained how error consists in privation of knowledge. To make this clearer, I will give an example.
Men are mistaken when they think themselves free. This opinion consists solely in their being conscious of their actions while ignorant of the causes by which they are determined. Their idea of freedom, then, is just their ignorance of any cause for their actions. As for their saying that human actions depend on the will, these are words for which they have no idea at all. None of them know what the will is or how it moves the body; those who boast otherwise, and invent seats and dwelling-places for the soul, tend to provoke either laughter or disgust.
Again, when we look at the sun, we imagine it to be about two hundred feet away from us. This error does not consist merely in that imagining, but in the fact that while we so imagine, we are ignorant of the sun's true distance and of the cause of that imagining. For even after we come to know that the sun is more than six hundred earth-diameters away, we will still imagine it to be nearby. We do not imagine the sun as near because we are ignorant of its true distance; we imagine it that way because the affection of our body involves the essence of the sun insofar as our body is affected by the sun.