Contemptus est rei alicujus imaginatio quæ mentem adeo parum tangit ut ipsa mens ex rei præsentia magis moveatur ad ea imaginandum quæ in ipsa re non sunt quam quæ in ipsa sunt. Vide scholium propositionis 52 hujus. Definitiones venerationis et dedignationis missas hic facio quia nulli quod sciam affectus ex his nomen trahunt.
Contempt is an imagination of some thing which touches the mind to such a small extent that the mind itself is moved more by the presence of the thing to imagining those things which are not in the thing itself than those things which are. See IIIP52. Outlining the definitions of veneration and disdain I do here since there are no affects which derive their name from these.
Here Spinoza discusses contempt as something which is not related to an affect, but more like some redirected state. He includes veneration and disdain as constructed in a similar way. These are all endowed with more of a sideways force than a direct force. It is pertinent that Spinoza begins his post-primitives discussion with stating those states of mind which are not powered by the primitives, but are likely to be confused as such. The delineation of veneration as not affect-driven - like that of wonder - lends credence to the idea that any form of a religious mindset is unattractive to Spinoza.
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