Part II
On the Nature and Origin of the Mind
The human mind as the idea of the body. The order and connection of ideas parallels the order and connection of things.
Preface(1)
Definitions(8)
E2D1By body I mean a mode which expresses in a certain determinate manner the essence of God, in so far as he is considered…E2D2I consider as belonging to the essence of a thing that, which being given, the thing is necessarily given also, and,…E2D3By idea, I mean the mental conception which is formed by the mind as a thinking thing.
Explanation: I say conception…E2D4By an adequate idea, I mean an idea which, in so far as it is considered in itself, without relation to the object, has…E2D5Duration is the indefinite continuance of existing.
Explanation: I say indefinite, because it cannot be determined…E2D6Reality and perfection I use as synonymous terms.E2D7By particular things, I mean things which are finite and have a conditioned existence; but if several individual things…E2D8Cum corpora aliquot ejusdem aut diversæ magnitudinis a reliquis ita coercentur ut invicem incumbant vel si eodem aut…
Axioms(5)
E2A1The essence of man does not involve necessary existence, that is, it may, in the order of nature, come to pass that…E2A2Man thinks.E2A3Modes of thinking, such as love, desire, or any other of the passions, do not take place, unless there be in the same…E2A4We perceive that a certain body is affected in many ways.E2A5We feel and perceive no particular things, save bodies and modes of thought.
N.B. The Postulates are given after the…
Postulates(6)
E2Post1The human body is composed of a number of individual parts, of diverse nature, each one of which is in itself extremely…E2Post2Of the individual parts composing the human body some are fluid, some soft, some hard.E2Post3The individual parts composing the human body, and consequently the human body itself, are affected in a variety of…E2Post4The human body stands in need for its preservation of a number of other bodies, by which it is continually, so to…E2Post5When the fluid part of the human body is determined by an external body to impinge often on another soft part, it…E2Post6The human body can move external bodies, and arrange them in a variety of ways.
Propositions(49)
E2P1Thought is an attribute of God, or God is a thinking thing.E2P2Extension is an attribute of God, or God is an extended thing.E2P3In God there is necessarily the idea not only of his essence, but also of all things which necessarily follow from his…E2P4The idea of God, from which an infinite number of things follow in infinite ways, can only be one.E2P5The actual being of ideas owns God as its cause, only in so far as he is considered as a thinking thing, not in so far…E2P6The modes of any given attribute are caused by God, in so far as he is considered through the attribute of which they…E2P7The order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things.E2P8The ideas of particular things, or of modes, that do not exist, must be comprehended in the infinite idea of God, in…E2P9The idea of an individual thing actually existing is caused by God, not in so far as he is infinite, but in so far as…E2P10The being of substance does not appertain to the essence of man--in other words, substance does not constitute the…E2P11The first element, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is the idea of some particular thing actually…E2P12Whatsoever comes to pass in the object of the idea, which constitutes the human mind, must be perceived by the human…E2P13The object of the idea constituting the human mind is the body, in other words a certain mode of extension which…E2P14The human mind is capable of perceiving a great number of things, and is so in proportion as its body is capable of…E2P15The idea, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is not simple, but compounded of a great number of…E2P16The idea of every mode, in which the human body is affected by external bodies, must involve the nature of the human…E2P17If the human body is affected in a manner which involves the nature of any external body, the human mind will regard…E2P18If the human body has once been affected by two or more bodies at the same time, when the mind afterwards imagines any…E2P19The human mind has no knowledge of the body, and does not know it to exist, save through the ideas of the modifications…E2P20The idea or knowledge of the human mind is also in God, following in God in the same manner, and being referred to God…E2P21This idea of the mind is united to the mind in the same way as the mind is united to the body.E2P22The human mind perceives not only the modifications of the body, but also the ideas of such modifications.E2P23The mind does not know itself, except in so far as it perceives the ideas of the modifications of the body.E2P24The human mind does not involve an adequate knowledge of the parts composing the human body.E2P25The idea of each modification of the human body does not involve an adequate knowledge of the external body.E2P26The human mind does not perceive any external body as actually existing, except through the ideas of the modifications…E2P27The idea of each modification of the human body does not involve an adequate knowledge of the human body itself.E2P28The ideas of the modifications of the human body, in so far as they have reference only to the human mind, are not…E2P29The idea of the idea of each modification of the human body does not involve an adequate knowledge of the human mind.E2P30We can only have a very inadequate knowledge of the duration of our body.E2P31We can only have a very inadequate knowledge of the duration of particular things external to ourselves.E2P32All ideas, in so far as they are referred to God, are true.E2P33There is nothing positive in ideas, which causes them to be called false.E2P34Every idea, which in us is absolute or adequate and perfect, is true.E2P35Falsity consists in the privation of knowledge, which inadequate, fragmentary, or confused ideas involve.E2P36Inadequate and confused ideas follow by the same necessity, as adequate or clear and distinct ideas.E2P37That which is common to all (cf. Lemma II., above), and which is equally in a part and in the whole, does not…E2P38Those things, which are common to all, and which are equally in a part and in the whole, cannot be conceived except…E2P39That, which is common to and a property of the human body and such other bodies as are wont to affect the human body,…E2P40Whatsoever ideas in the mind follow from ideas which are therein adequate, are also themselves adequate.E2P41Knowledge of the first kind is the only source of falsity, knowledge of the second and third kinds is necessarily true.E2P42Knowledge of the second and third kinds, not knowledge of the first kind, teaches us to distinguish the true from the…E2P43He, who has a true idea, simultaneously knows that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt of the truth of the thing…E2P44It is not in the nature of reason to regard things as contingent, but as necessary.E2P45Every idea of every body, or of every particular thing actually existing, necessarily involves the eternal and infinite…E2P46The knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God which every idea involves is adequate and perfect.E2P47The human mind has an adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God.E2P48In the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has…E2P49There is in the mind no volition or affirmation and negation, save that which an idea, inasmuch as it is an idea,…
Lemmas(7)
Spinoza's physical interlude on bodies in motion, inserted between Propositions 13 and 14.
E2L1Bodies are distinguished from one another in respect of motion and rest, quickness and slowness, and not in respect of…E2L2All bodies agree in certain respects.E2L3A body in motion or at rest must be determined to motion or rest by another body, which other body has been determined…E2L4If from a body or individual, compounded of several bodies, certain bodies be separated, and if, at the same time, an…E2L5If the parts composing an individual become greater or less, but in such proportion, that they all preserve the same…E2L6If certain bodies composing an individual be compelled to change the motion, which they have in one direction, for…E2L7Furthermore, the individual thus composed preserves its nature, whether it be, as a whole, in motion or at rest,…
Additional axioms(5)
Auxiliary axioms accompanying the physical interlude.
E2AInt1All bodies are either in motion or at rest.E2AInt2Every body is moved sometimes more slowly, sometimes more quickly.E2AInt3--All modes, wherein one body is affected by another body, follow simultaneously from the nature of the body affected…E2AInt4--When a body in motion impinges on another body at rest, which it is unable to move, it recoils, in order to continue…E2AInt5--In proportion as the parts of an individual, or a compound body, are in contact over a greater or less superficies,…