Part V
Of the Power of the Understanding, or of Human Freedom
The power of the understanding and human freedom: the intellectual love of God as the highest good and the meaning of blessedness.
Preface(1)
Axioms(2)
Propositions(42)
E5P1Even as thoughts and the ideas of things are arranged and associated in the mind, so are the modifications of body or…E5P2If we remove a disturbance of the spirit, or emotion, from the thought of an external cause, and unite it to other…E5P3An emotion, which is a passion, ceases to be a passion, as soon as we form a clear and distinct idea thereof.E5P4There is no modification of the body, whereof we cannot form some clear and distinct conception.E5P5An emotion towards a thing, which we conceive simply, and not as necessary, or as contingent, or as possible, is, other…E5P6The mind has greater power over the emotions and is less subject thereto, in so far as it understands all things as…E5P7Emotions which are aroused or spring from reason, if we take account of time, are stronger than those, which are…E5P8An emotion is stronger in proportion to the number of simultaneous concurrent causes whereby it is aroused.E5P9An emotion, which is attributable to many and diverse causes which the mind regards as simultaneous with the emotion…E5P10So long as we are not assailed by emotions contrary to our nature, we have the power of arranging and associating the…E5P11In proportion as a mental image is referred to more objects, so is it more frequent, or more often vivid, and occupies…E5P12The mental images of things are more easily associated with the images referred to things which we clearly and…E5P13A mental image is more often vivid, in proportion as it is associated with a greater number of other images.E5P14The mind can bring it about, that all bodily modifications or images of things may be referred to the idea of God.E5P15He who clearly and distinctly understands himself and his emotions loves God, and so much the more in proportion as he…E5P16This love towards God must hold the chief place in the mind.E5P17God is without passions, neither is he affected by any emotion of pleasure or pain.E5P18No one can hate God.E5P19He, who loves God, cannot endeavour that God should love him in return.E5P20This love towards God cannot be stained by the emotion of envy or jealousy: contrariwise, it is the more fostered, in…E5P21The mind can only imagine anything, or remember what is past, while the body endures.E5P22Nevertheless in God there is necessarily an idea, which expresses the essence of this or that human body under the form…E5P23The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the body, but there remains of it something which is eternal.E5P24The more we understand particular things, the more do we understand God.E5P25The highest endeavour of the mind, and the highest virtue is to understand things by the third kind of knowledge.E5P26In proportion as the mind is more capable of understanding things by the third kind of knowledge, it desires more to…E5P27From this third kind of knowledge arises the highest possible mental acquiescence.E5P28The endeavour or desire to know things by the third kind of knowledge cannot arise from the first, but from the second…E5P29Whatsoever the mind understands under the form of eternity, it does not understand by virtue of conceiving the present…E5P30Our mind, in so far as it knows itself and the body under the form of eternity, has to that extent necessarily a…E5P31The third kind of knowledge depends on the mind, as its formal cause, in so far as the mind itself is eternal.E5P32Whatsoever we understand by the third kind of knowledge, we take delight in, and our delight is accompanied by the idea…E5P33The intellectual love of God, which arises from the third kind of knowledge, is eternal.E5P34The mind is, only while the body endures, subject to those emotions which are attributable to passions.E5P35God loves himself with an infinite intellectual love.E5P36The intellectual love of the mind towards God is that very love of God whereby God loves himself, not in so far as he…E5P37There is nothing in nature, which is contrary to this intellectual love, or which can take it away.E5P38In proportion as the mind understands more things by the second and third kind of knowledge, it is less subject to…E5P39He, who possesses a body capable of the greatest number of activities, possesses a mind whereof the greatest part is…E5P40In proportion as each thing possesses more of perfection, so is it more active, and less passive; and, vice versa, in…E5P41Even if we did not know that our mind is eternal, we should still consider as of primary importance piety and religion,…E5P42Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; neither do we rejoice therein, because we control our…