Because the mind’s power is defined by understanding alone, the remedies against the emotions must be determined solely by knowledge of the mind, from which further practical conclusions will be deduced.
By Baruch Spinoza, from Ethics
Key Arguments
- He grounds mind’s efficacy in cognition: "the power of the mind... is defined by the understanding only."
- Methodological directive: "we shall determine solely by the knowledge of the mind the remedies against the emotions."
- He suggests these remedies are familiar in experience but insufficiently observed and will serve as a basis for further deductions.
Source Quotes
Lastly, I omit all the assertions which he makes concerning the will and its freedom, inasmuch as I have abundantly proved that his premisses are false. Therefore, since the power of the mind, as I have shown above, is defined by the understanding only, we shall determine solely by the knowledge of the mind the remedies against the emotions, which I believe all have had experience of, but do not accurately observe or distinctly see, and from the same basis we shall deduce all those conclusions, which have regard
Key Concepts
- Therefore, since the power of the mind, as I have shown above, is defined by the understanding only,
- we shall determine solely by the knowledge of the mind the remedies against the emotions, which I believe all have had experience of, but do not accurately observe or distinctly see,
- and from the same basis we shall deduce all those conclusions, which have regard
Context
Part V, Preface: methodological conclusion setting up the cognitive therapy of the affects developed in Part V.