Ethics — Part 5

by Benedictus de Spinoza

Prop. XXXII. Whatsoever we understand by the third kind of knowledge, we take delight in, and our delight is accompanied by the idea of God as cause.

Proof.- From this kind of knowledge arises the highest possible mental acquiescence, that is (Def of the Emotions:xxv.), pleasure, and this acquiescence is accompanied by the idea of the mind itself (V. xxvii.), and consequently (V:xxx.) the idea also of God as cause. Q.E.D.

Corollary.- From the third kind of knowledge necessarily arises the intellectual love of God. From this kind of knowledge arises pleasure accompanied by the idea of God as cause, that is (Def. of the Emotions:vi.), the love of God; not in so far as we imagine him as present (V:xxix.), but in so far as we understand him to be eternal; this is what I call the intellectual love of God.

Prop. XXXIII. The intellectual love of God, which arises from the third kind of knowledge, is eternal.

Proof.- The third kind of knowledge is eternal (V:xxxi., I:Ax.iii.); therefore (by the same Axiom) the love which arises therefrom is also necessarily eternal. Q.E.D.

Note.- Although this love towards God has (by the foregoing Prop.) no beginning, it yet possesses all the perfections of love, just as though it had arisen as we feigned in the Coroll. of the last Prop. Nor is there here any difference, except that the mind possesses as eternal those same perfections which we feigned to accrue to it, and they are accompanied by the idea of God as eternal cause. If pleasure consists in the transition to a greater perfection, assuredly blessedness must consist in the mind being endowed with perfection itself.

Prop. XXX.IV. The mind is, only while the body endures, subject to those emotions which are attributable to passions.

Proof. Imagination is the idea wherewith the mind contemplates a thing as present (II:xvii.Note); yet this idea indicates rather the present disposition of the human body than the nature of the external thing (II:xvi.Coroll.ii.). Therefore emotion (see general Def. of Emotions) is imagination, in so far as it indicates the present disposition of the body; therefore (V:xxi.) the mind is, only while the body endures, subject to emotions which are attributable to passions. Q.E.D.

Corollary.- Hence it follows that no love save intellectual love is eternal.

Note.- If we look to men's general opinion, we shall see that they are indeed conscious of the eternity of their mind, but that they confuse eternity with duration, and ascribe it to the imagination or the memory which they believe to remain after death.