Jolanta Żelazna

Supplements and Footnotes in Ethics. Reason, Imagination, Understanding This sketch contains a rought analysis of Spinoza's reasons for adding "Footnotes" and "Supplements" to his "Ethics", both of which containing many undefined words disrupting the coherrence of the deductive order of exposition used in the main body of the work. Doubts raised by readers of the early versions of "Ethics" and "A Theologico-Political Treatise" and, most of all, several difficulties understanding the exposition, occasioned by the same parts of the work, independent of reader's education, induced Spinoza to a more detailed survey into the cognitive process and the role of its particular elements. The ability to understand depends on ratio and intellect, whereas the real understanding is the result of association, recognition, imagination and memory. When referring to such "ideal" objects as the objects of geometry, these factors do not introduce any previously known content to the proces of cognition, but when referred to previously gained experience they easily draw the activity of ratio and intellect away from the course of the deduction delineated in the text.

Imagination plays a specific role in Spinoza's Ethics. Similarly to Epictetus' fantasia it is the source of affections of body and mind. Proper understanding of the origins of acataleptic perceptions (Epictetus) and imaginations (Spinoza) together with their interactions enable mind to get free from passive states and to reach happines. In Ethics imagination can be found wherever images are formed - in eyes, that is in body, whereas in mind an occurrence parallel to affection of optic nerves is a perception, or comprehending an idea. I the article I try to present this "parallelism" of psychophysical occurences by referring to everyday examples.

The Notion of Substance in the "Ethics" by Spinoza Spinoza searched for a language that could help him to create a monistic system of ethics. Latin was in the 17th century a fairly malleable medium of communication. In its philosophical use it was largely a creation of Descartes. Spinoza wanted to use it in a way that would resemble Euclid's treatement of geometry. He needed a language that would clearly and precisely describe the proces by which a man could liberate himself from the power of passions that hamper natural propensity for social peace and mental equanimity. He decided to begin by describing nature, which was responsible for man's proclivities and abilities. Consequently he needed a new concept of substance which on the one hand could be defined by some initial axioms, and on the other hand would sufficiently flexible to include various aspects of human thought. It is interesting that when Spinoza had to make a choice between flexibility and content, he resolved to adopt a strict method of reasoning at the cost of the received understanding of substance. It is possible that these linguistic considerations led him to adopt the view that substance is identical with God and as such encompasses all principles of operation of the human mind and premises for the deriving of all fundamental concepts popular in his times.

Happiness. The view of Descartes and Spinoza The article summaries some of the aspects of joy as a spiritual state (Descartes), and as affect / stimulation of the modi of nature (Spinoza). The psycho-physiological (Descartes) and ontological (Spinoza) placement of joy creates basic differences in evaluation of the said state by the two philosophers. As a result, the moral instructions provided by them to the reader vary in an approach to the emotions and their effect on human actions. Descartes values the importance of sadness as an affect warning us from dangers; Spinoza claims that joy (as different from pleasure) can never be excessive and encourages pursuing it as a mean to achieve happiness.

Existence and Time in the Philosophy of Spinoza In Ethics, Spinoza distinguishes the existence and duration/time. He connects the first one with the necessity of validity of eternal, constant logical thruth, the second one - with a mean by which ratio orders in the mind the relations between the ideas occuring in the perceptions and recollections. The proper understanding of both of these terms is one of the conditions of archeving the aims of Ethics, praeclara animi aequiescentia, a breath of the soul, possible if we treat time and duration as an hypothetical model of events, rather than one adequate towards nature.

Wovon handelt Spinozas Affektentheorie Der Begriff des Affekts ist aus der Umgangsprache verschwunden und durch die Ausdrucke wie "Gefuhl", "Emotion" abgelost worden. Spinozas Auffassung, die er in seiner "Ethik" ausgearbeitet hat, verliert infolgedessen an Verstandlichkeit und ist heute ganz vergessen, obgleich die Spinoza-Kenner standig die theoretische Tragweite und die Aktualitat mancher seiner Vorschlage unterstreichen. Spinoza warnte seine Leser davor, den Menschen als ein abgesondertes, autonomisches Sein zu betrachten, das sich uber die naturlichen Einschrankungen erhebt und immer betonte, dass wir ein Produkt und strenggenommen - ein Modus der Existenz der Natur sind, den er als eine unendliche, unteilbare, immer wirkende Substanz verstand. Von entscheidender Bedeutung fur die menschliche Gluckseligkeit ist das Verstandnis der Tatsache, dass wir innerhalb der unendlichen, wirkenden Natur leben und deswegen die Frage nach ihren Grenzen keinen Sinn hat. Es bleibt uns nichts anderes als ihre Erscheinungen immanent zu forschen und anzunehmen, dass sie in jedem Akt auf unermesslich viele Weisen ihr Wesen ausdrucken, das die menschliche Vernunft als Idee erfasst. In der Natur gibt es daher keine Irrtumer und wenn wir sie wahrnehmen, geschieht es so, weil wir selbst Erregungen der Substanz sind und auch durch andere ihre Modi erregt werden. Das System der menschlichen Wahrnehmung errinert an eine Wasserflache, die durch Windstosse und ins Wasser hineinfallende Objekte gekrauseltet wird - unsere Wahrnehmungen der nachsten Erregungen der Natur sind selten adaquat. Spinoza stellt fest, dass der erste und grundsatzliche "Affekt" aller Modi der Substanz ist das Streben, sich im Sein zu behaupten. In der Natur begleiten ihn zweie andere Affekte: eine (aktive) Forderung und eine (passive) Hemmung des Tatigkeitsvermogens aller Attribute der Substanz. Der Mensch nennt sie entsprechend "Lust" und "Unlust". Aus diesen drei Erregungen entstehen verschiedene Kombinationen und Vermischungen von Empfindungen, die seine Seele erschuttern. Die Aufgabe der Ethik besteht vor allem darin, die Natur selbst und unsere Abhangigkeit von ihr zu erkennen und erst in weiterer Folge - den menschlichen Status quo festzusetzen, d.h. zu bestimmen, auf weche Weise man den Affekten aus der Gattung von "Unlust" ihre destruktive Einwirkungskraft auf die menschliche Vernunft entziehen kann. Man muss sich aber standig daran erinnern, dass sowohl die aktiven als auch die passiven Affekte Zustande der Natur selbst sind.