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Contents - Ethics 5,
Of the Power of the Understanding, or of Human Freedom

E5PREF PREFACE. At length I pass to the remaining portion of my Ethics, which is...
E5A1 AXIOM. 1. If two contrary actions be started in the same subject, a change must necessarily take place, eithe...
E5A2 AXIOM. 2. The power of an effect is defined by the power of its cause, in so far as its essence is explained...
E5P1 PROP. 1. Even as thoughts and the ideas of things are arranged and associated in the mind, so are the modifi...
E5P2 PROP. 2. If we remove a disturbance of the spirit, or emotion, from the thought of an external cause, and un...
E5P3 PROP. 3. An emotion, which is a passion, ceases to be a passion, as soon as we form a clear and distinct ide...
E5P3C PROP. 3, Cor. An emotion therefore becomes more under our control, and the mind is less passive in respect to it,...
E5P4 PROP. 4. There is no modification of the body, whereof we cannot form some clear and distinct conception.
E5P4C PROP. 4, Cor. Hence it follows that there is no emotion, whereof we cannot form some clear and distinct conceptio...
E5P5 PROP. 5. An emotion towards a thing, which we conceive simply, and not as necessary, or as contingent, or as...
E5P6 PROP. 6. The mind has greater power over the emotions and is less subject thereto, in so far as it understan...
E5P7 PROP. 7. Emotions which are aroused or spring from reason, if we take account of time, are stronger than tho...
E5P8 PROP. 8. An emotion is stronger in proportion to the number of simultaneous concurrent causes whereby it is...
E5P9 PROP. 9. An emotion, which is attributable to many and diverse causes which the mind regards as simultaneous...
E5P10 PROP. 10. So long as we are not assailed by emotions contrary to our nature, we have the power of arranging a...
E5P11 PROP. 11. In proportion as a mental image is referred to more objects, so is it more frequent, or more often...
E5P12 PROP. 12. The mental images of things are more easily associated with the images referred to things which we...
E5P13 PROP. 13. A mental image is more often vivid, in proportion as it is associated with a greater number of othe...
E5P14 PROP. 14. The mind can bring it about, that all bodily modifications or images of things may be referred to t...
E5P15 PROP. 15. He who clearly and distinctly understands himself and his emotions loves God, and so much the more...
E5P16 PROP. 16. This love towards God must hold the chief place in the mind.
E5P17 PROP. 17. God is without passions, neither is he affected by any emotion of pleasure or pain.
E5P17C PROP. 17, Cor. Strictly speaking, God does not love or hate anyone. For God (by the foregoing Prop. E5P17...
E5P18 PROP. 18. No one can hate God.
E5P18C PROP. 18, Cor. Love towards God cannot be turned into hate.
E5P19 PROP. 19. He, who loves God, cannot endeavour that God should love him in return.
E5P20 PROP. 20. This love towards God cannot be stained by the emotion of envy or jealousy: contrariwise, it is the...
E5P21 PROP. 21. The mind can only imagine anything, or remember what is past, while the body endures.
E5P22 PROP. 22. Nevertheless in God there is necessarily an idea, which expresses the essence of this or that human...
E5P23 PROP. 23. The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the body, but there remains of it something whic...
E5P24 PROP. 24. The more we understand particular things, the more do we understand God.
E5P25 PROP. 25. The highest endeavour of the mind, and the highest virtue is to understand things by the third kind...
E5P26 PROP. 26. In proportion as the mind is more capable of understanding things by the third kind of knowledge, i...
E5P27 PROP. 27. From this third kind of knowledge arises the highest possible mental acquiescence.
E5P28 PROP. 28. The endeavour or desire to know things by the third kind of knowledge cannot arise from the first,...
E5P29 PROP. 29. Whatsoever the mind understands under the form, of eternity, it does not understand by virtue of co...
E5P30 PROP. 30. Our mind, in so far as it knows itself and the body under the form of eternity, has to that extent...
E5P31 PROP. 31. The third kind of knowledge depends on the mind, as its formal cause, in so far as the mind itself...
E5P32 PROP. 32. Whatsoever we understand by the third kind of knowledge, we take delight in, and our delight is acc...
E5P32C PROP. 32, Cor. From the third kind of knowledge necessarily arises the intellectual love of God.
E5P33 PROP. 33. The intellectual love of God, which arises from the third kind of knowledge, is eternal.
E5P34 PROP. 34. The mind is, only while the body endures, subject to those emotions which are attributable to passi...
E5P34C PROP. 34, Cor. Hence it follows that no love save intellectual love is eternal.
E5P35 PROP. 35. God loves himself with an infinite intellectual love.
E5P36 PROP. 36. The intellectual love of the mind towards God is that very love of God whereby God loves himself, n...
E5P36C PROP. 36, Cor. Hence it follows that God, in so far as he loves himself, loves man, and, consequently, that the lo...
E5P37 PROP. 37. There is nothing in nature, which is contrary to this intellectual love, or which can take it away.
E5P38 PROP. 38. In proportion as the mind understands more things by the second and third kind of knowledge, it is...
E5P39 PROP. 39. He, who, possesses a body capable of the greatest number of activities, possesses a mind whereof th...
E5P40 PROP. 40. In proportion as each thing possesses more of perfection, so is it more active, and less passive; a...
E5P40C PROP. 40, Cor. Hence it follows that the part of the mind which endures, be it great or small, is more perfect tha...
E5P41 PROP. 41. Even if we did not know that our mind is eternal, we should still consider as of primary importance...
E5P42 PROP. 42. Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; neither do we rejoice therein, because...