The human body by Post 1 can be affected in many ways in which its power of acting can be increased or diminished. So by ‘affect,’ Spinoza refers to affections on the body by which the body’s power of acting is increased or diminished, aided or restrained [by IIID3]. From this, since, [by IIP11 and IIP13] the first thing that constitutes the essence of a human mind is an actual existing body that is prone in its nature to be affected, then the mind will have many ideas of the affections of the body. This follows from how ideas of the affections of the body will be in the human mind insofar as ideas of affections are in nature (God) and God has an idea of the human mind and that the order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things (under extension). Hence, it is important first to establish that whatever the body is affected, the mind has an idea of the affection. Adequate causes of affections are actions and passion entails an inadequate cause.
As shown from part two of the Ethics, our mind perceives many things inadequately and hence has many inadequate ideas. Insofar as our mind has inadequate ideas, it necessarily undergoes other things or gets affected by other affect-modes or passions (inadequate ideas of Nature). Passions are confused ideas by which the mind affirms the body’s existence more or less and necessarily function affirmatively or dissentingly as regards the body’s existence. The mind consists of an idea of an actually existing body whose essence does not contain any negation or a contrary nature to destroy itself [from IIIP4 & IIIP5]. Since it does not contain in its essence anything that wants to destroy itself, it then necessarily by the doctrine of conatus [IIIP6] tries to persevere in its being like all the essences of other singular things in nature. Moreover, since the first thing that constitutes our mind is an actually existing thing, it is in the mind’s essence to strive to affirm the existence of the body. So long as each thing or mind in nature exists, it is in its essence to persevere in its being not by its choice or for limited amounts of selected time but indefinitely as long as it exists. For if the striving is only for a determined or selected duration then once it stops striving to exist or persevere in its being, it would be destroyed which is by IIIP4 not possible since nothing can be destroyed except through an external cause. The appetite of man or the striving of its mind and body together is thus a sort of desire that forms the essence of man to promote his preservation or to will, strive and desire things that will promote his preservation. On the side note than, our sense of ‘free will’ or ‘volition’ is then just mere consciousness of this natural appetite of man to persevere in his being. Striving or desire is thus in man’s essence and not a matter of mere volition.
The implications of this view is hence that insofar as the mind acts, it will act towards joy and desire and not towards sadness because by sadness, we understand that the mind’s power of acting is diminished or restrained. As such by IIIP13, when the mind imagines things that diminish or restrain the body’s power of acting, it will strive to recollect things that excludes the negative memory and will avoid imagining things that diminish its body’s power. Spinoza even posits in P53 that when the mind considers its power of acting, or when it is affected with joy, it rejoices and will hence only strive to imagine what affirms its power of acting.
It seems logical to posit that no one will act contrary to any positive strivings by and according to nature. Thus, if there were counter-examples, Spinoza will argue that it is because of hidden external causes that man is not aware of. Thus, if a man were to commit suicide, at first glance, it is obviously of his own volition. Yet Spinoza would argue that there maybe other modal-external causal relations in the bigger picture or nature that we are not cognizant of that compels the poor man to take his life. Spinoza’s arguments that man would strive to increase his power of acting and self-preserve by virtue of his very essence makes logical sense to me for it seems to be a rarity to find any man without any insidious external causes wanting to destroy his life purely by his own volition unaffected by any other things.
No comments:
Post a Comment