(Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect)
by
Baruch Spinoza
[Benedict de Spinoza]
Translated by R. H. M. Elwes
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1 On the Improvement of the Understanding
3 Of the ordinary objects of men's desires
12 Of the true and final good
17 Certain rules of life
19 Of the four modes of perception
25 Of the best mode of perception
33 Of the instruments of the intellect, or true ideas
43 Answers to objections
First part of method:
50 Distinction of true ideas from fictitious ideas
64 And from false ideas
77 Of doubt
81 Of memory and forgetfulness
86 Mental hindrances from words--and from the popular confusion
of ready imagination with distinct understanding.
Second part of method:
91 Its object, the acquisition of clear and distinct ideas
94 Its means, good definitions
Conditions of definition
107 How to define understanding
[Notice to the Reader.]
(This notice to the reader was written by the editors of theOpera Postuma in 1677. Taken from Curley, Note 3, at end)
*This Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect etc., which wegive you here, kind reader, in its unfinished [that is, defective]state, was written by the author many years ago now. He alwaysintended to finish it. But hindered by other occupations, andfinally snatched away by death, he was unable to bring it to thedesired conclusion. But since it contains many excellent and usefulthings, which--we have no doubt--will be of great benefit toanyone sincerely seeking the truth, we did not wish to deprive youof them. And so that you would be aware of, and find less difficultto excuse, the many things that are still obscure, rough, andunpolished, we wished to warn you of them. Farewell.*
[1] (1) After experience had taught me that all the usualsurroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that noneof the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything eithergood or bad, except in so far as the mind is affected by them,I finally resolved to inquire whether there might be some realgood having power to communicate itself, which would affect themind singly, to the exclusion of all else: whether, in fact, theremight be anything of which the discovery and attainment wouldenable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness.
[2] (1) I say "I finally resolved," for at first sight it seemedunwise willingly to lose hold on what was sure for the sake ofsomething then uncertain. (2) I could see the benefits which areacquired through fame and riches, and that I should be obliged toabandon the quest of such objects, if I seriously devote