Corollary.- (29:2) Hence it follows that the human mind, when it perceives
things after the common order of nature, has not an adequate but only a
confused and fragmentary knowledge of itself, of its own body, and of
external bodies. (3) For the mind does not know itself, except in so far
as it perceives the ideas of the modifications of body ([xxiii] ).
(29:4) It only perceives its own body ([xix] ) through the ideas of the
modifications, and only perceives external bodies through the same means;
thus, in so far as it has such ideas of modification, it has not an
adequate knowledge of itself ([xxix] ), nor of its own body ([xxvii] ),
nor of external bodies ([xxv] ), but only a fragmentary and confused
knowledge thereof ([xxviii] and note.) Q.E.D.
Note.- (29:5) I say expressly, that the mind has not an adequate but only
a confused knowledge of itself, its own body, and of external bodies,
whenever it perceives things after the common order of nature; that is,
whenever it is determined from without, namely, by the fortuitous play
of circumstance, to regard this or that; not at such times as it is
determined from within, that is, by the fact of regarding several things
at once, to understand their points of agreement, difference, and contrast.
(29:6) Whenever it is determined in anywise from within, it regards things
clearly and distinctly, as I will show below.
Pages:
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111