Improvement of the Understanding: Ethics and Correspondcence of Benedict de Spinoza

Voorkant
M. W. Dunne, 1901 - 427 pagina's
 

Overige edities - Alles bekijken

Veelvoorkomende woorden en zinsdelen

Populaire passages

Pagina 128 - ... nature's laws and ordinances, whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always the same ; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through nature's universal laws and rules. Thus the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from this same necessity and efficacy of nature ; they answer to certain definite causes, through which they are understood,...
Pagina 266 - Nevertheless in God there is necessarily an idea, which expresses the essence of this or that human body under the form of eternity.
Pagina 90 - I will, in the following propositions, deduce from what has been advanced. Wherefore I have thought it worth while to explain and prove more strictly my present statements. In order to do so, I must premise a few propositions concerning the nature of bodies. AXIOM I. All bodies are either in motion or at rest. AXIOM II. Every body is moved sometimes more slowly, sometimes more quickly. LEMMA I. Bodies are distinguished from one another in respect of motion and rest, quickness and slowness, and not...
Pagina 40 - That thing is called free, which exists solely by the necessity of its own nature, and of which the action is determined by itself alone. On the other hand, that thing is necessary, or rather constrained, which is determined by something external to itself to a fixed and definite method of existence or action.
Pagina 43 - substance" would be understood that which is in itself and is conceived through itself, or, in other words, that, the knowledge of which does not need the knowledge of another thing. But by "modifications...
Pagina 85 - God loves himself, not in so far as he is infinite, but in so far as he can be explained through the essence of the human mind regarded under the form of eternity; in other words, the intellectual love of the mind towards God is part of the infinite love, wherewith God loves himself.
Pagina 87 - Therefore the first element, which constitutes the actual "being of the human mind, is the idea of something actually existing. QED Corollary. — Hence it follows, that the human mind is part of the infinite intellect of God...
Pagina 83 - Thus, whether we conceive nature under the attribute of extension, or under the attribute of thought, or under any other attribute, we shall find the same order, or one and the same chain of causes—that is, the same things following in either case.
Pagina 226 - He who rightly realizes, that all things follow from the necessity of the divine nature, and come to pass in accordance with the eternal laws and rules of nature, will not find anything worthy of hatred, derision, or contempt, nor will he bestow pity on anything, but to the utmost extent of human virtue he will endeavour to do well, as the saying is, and to rejoice. We may add, that he, who is easily touched with compassion, and is moved by another's sorrow or tears, often does something which he...
Pagina 133 - ... are readily swayed this way or that. All these considerations clearly show that a mental decision and a bodily appetite, or determined state, are simultaneous, or rather are one and the same thing, which we call decision, when it is regarded under and explained through the attribute of thought, and a conditioned state, when it is regarded under the attribute of extension, and deduced from the laws of motion and rest.

Bibliografische gegevens