On the Improvement of the Understanding | Page 3

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On the Improvement of the Understanding (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 the Opera Postuma in 1677. Taken from Curley, Note 3, at
end)
*This Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect etc., which we give
you here, kind reader, in its unfinished [that is, defective] state, was
written by the author many years ago now. He always intended to
finish it. But hindered by other occupations, and finally snatched away
by death, he was unable to bring it to the desired conclusion. But since
it contains many excellent and useful things, which - we have no doubt
- will be of great benefit to anyone sincerely seeking the truth, we did
not wish to deprive you of them. And so that you would be aware of,
and find less difficult to excuse, the many things that are still obscure,
rough, and unpolished, we wished to warn you of them. Farewell.*

[1] (1) After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundings
of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my
fears contained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so

far as the mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether
there might be some real good having power to communicate itself,
which would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of all else:
whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the discovery and
attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and
unending happiness.
[2] (1) I say "I finally resolved," for at first sight it seemed unwise
willingly to lose hold on what was sure for the sake of something then
uncertain. (2) I could see the benefits which are acquired through fame
and riches, and that I should be obliged to abandon the quest of such
objects, if I seriously devoted myself to the search for something
different and new. (3) I perceived that if true happiness chanced to be
placed in the former I should necessarily miss it; while if, on the other
hand, it were not so placed, and I gave them my whole attention, I
should equally fail.
[3] (1) I therefore debated whether it would not be possible to arrive at
the new principle, or at any rate at a certainty concerning its existence,
without changing the conduct and usual plan of my life; with this end
in view I made many efforts, in vain. (2) For the ordinary surroundings
of life which are esteemed by men (as their actions testify) to be the
highest good, may be classed under the three heads - Riches, Fame, and
the Pleasures of Sense: with these three the mind is so absorbed that it
has little power to reflect on any different good.
[4] (1) By sensual pleasure the mind is enthralled to the extent of
quiescence, as if the supreme good were actually attained, so that it is
quite incapable of thinking of any other object; when such pleasure has
been gratified it is followed by extreme melancholy, whereby the mind,
though not enthralled, is