Sunday, February 7, 2021

Spinoza's Ethics: II.A5: Human Limits

Here Spinoza outlines the limits of human faculties. These axioms continue to address a human mind (as opposed to the mind of God). Further, Spinoza continues with sentimus or "feeling" and percipimus or "perceiving" as cogitandi modos or "modes of thinking." When it comes to "feeling," an object or a body must be involved. This "feeling" may be removed but the idea remains - a state that leads to "perceiving."

The add-on about checking later postulates seems irregular as Spinoza typically builds in a geometric fashion. I suspect that either this was a note to be adjusted later or it was added at a later dated for clarification.

Nullas res singulares præter corpora et cogitandi modos sentimus nec percipimus. Postulata vide post 13 propositionem.

Translated as,

We neither feel nor perceive any singular things except bodies and modes of thinking. See postulates after IIP13.

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