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Affirmation and Negation in Spinoza's Philosophy

The following was posted on 1/17/2002 to the Spinoza Ethics Slow Reading list (see Related Sites)

    ...I would begin by looking at how Spinoza uses the terms. I might also look in a good dictionary but with the caveat that, as Spinoza says;

"...words are formed according to popular fancy and intelligence, and are, therefore, signs of things as existing in the imagination, not as existing in the understanding"

so the many different shades of meaning presented for the definitions found there may lead us in different directions.

    Here are a few examples of how Spinoza uses the terms:

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...We must inquire, I say, whether there is in the mind any affirmation or negation beyond that, which the idea, in so far as it is an idea, involves.
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    He says that an idea, in so far as it is an idea, involves "affirmation or negation." So what does that mean? He goes on:

======== E2: PROP. 49:
There is in the mind no volition or affirmation and negation, save that which an idea, inasmuch as it is an idea, involves.

Proof.--There is in the mind [by E2P48] no absolute faculty of positive or negative volition, but only particular volitions, namely, this or that affirmation, and this or that negation. Now let us conceive a particular volition, namely, the mode of thinking whereby the mind affirms, that the three interior angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles.

This affirmation involves the conception or idea of a triangle, that is, without the idea of a triangle it cannot be conceived. It is the same thing to say, that the concept A must involve the concept B, as it is to say, that A cannot be conceived without B. Further, this affirmation cannot be made (E2A3) without the idea of a triangle. Therefore, this affirmation can neither be nor be conceived, without the idea of a triangle.

Again, this idea of a triangle must involve this same affirmation, namely, that its three interior angles are equal to two right angles. Wherefore, and vice versa, this idea of a triangle can neither be nor be conceived without this affirmation, therefore [by E2D2], this affirmation belongs to the essence of the idea of a triangle, and is nothing besides. What we have said of this volition (inasmuch as we have selected it at random) may be said of any other volition, namely, that it is nothing but an idea. Q.E.D.
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    He gives an example of a particular affirmation; "the mode of thinking whereby the mind affirms, that the three interior angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles." It is a mode of thinking that "says to our being"; "This is so" while negation "says to our being"; "This is not so." But these are just words which he is using to refer to what he calls ideas which he tells us in the following are quite different things:

======== E2: PROP. 49 Corollary, Note:
Those who think that ideas consist in images which are formed in us by contact with external bodies, persuade themselves that the ideas of those things, whereof we can form no mental picture, are not ideas, but only figments, which we invent by the free decree of our will; they thus regard ideas as though they were inanimate pictures on a panel, and, filled with this misconception, do not see that an idea, inasmuch as it is an idea, involves an affirmation or negation.

Again, those who confuse words with ideas, or with the affirmation which an idea involves, think that they can wish something contrary to what they feel, affirm, or deny. This misconception will easily be laid aside by one, who reflects on the nature of knowledge, and seeing that it in no wise involves the conception of extension, will therefore clearly understand, that an idea (being a mode of thinking) does not consist in the image of anything, nor in words. The essence of words and images is put together by bodily motions, which in no wise involve the conception of thought.
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    He says; "...an idea, inasmuch as it is an idea, involves an affirmation or negation." In the TEI he said, in effect, that his mind affirms ("says"; "This is so") that 2 and 3 make 5. Affirmation and Negation is what the mind does, either clearly or confusedly. Moving or Resting is what bodies do.

    We're stuck with words for tools here. Bear in mind that he says elsewhere; "...my purpose is to explain, not the meaning of words, but the nature of things." It is Ideas that Spinoza is exploring and he cannot show us pictures of Ideas. He uses the terms "Affirmation" and "Negation" to refer to something Ideas, not bodies involve.

    Terry

I welcome any thoughts on the above subject.
You may send email to:
tneff [at] earthlink [dot] net

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