PARTII
OF THENATURE ANDORIGIN OF THEMIND
I now pass on to the explication of those things that must necessarily have followed
from the essence of God, the eternal and infinite Being; not indeed all of them—for we
proved in Proposition 16, Part I that from his essence there must follow infinite things
in infinite ways—but only those things that can lead us as it were by the hand to the
knowledge of the human mind and its utmost blessedness.
Definitions- By “body” I understand a mode that expresses in a definite and determinate
way God’s essence insofar as he is considered as an extended thing. (See Cor. Pr. 25, I.) - I say that there pertains to the essence of a thing that which, when granted, the
thing is necessarily posited, and by the annulling of which the thing is necessarily
annulled; or that without which the thing can neither be nor be conceived, and, vice
versa, that which cannot be or be conceived without the thing. - By idea I understand a conception of the Mind which the Mind forms because
it is a thinking thing.
Explication: I say “conception” rather than “perception” because the term percep-
tion seems to indicate that the Mind is passive to its object whereas conception seems to
express an activity of the Mind. - By an adequate idea I mean an idea which, insofar as it is considered in itself
without relation to its object, has all the properties, that is, intrinsic characteristics, of a
true idea [ideatum].
Explication: I say “intrinsic” so as to exclude the extrinsic characteristic—to wit
the agreement of the idea with that of which it is an idea. - Duration is the indefinite continuance of existing.
Explication: I say “indefinite” because it can in no wise be determined through the
nature of the existing thing, nor again by the thing’s efficient cause which necessarily
posits, but does not annul, the existence of the thing. - By reality and perfection I mean the same thing.
- By individual things [res singulares] I mean things that are finite and have a
determinate existence. If several individual things concur in one act in such a way as to
be all together the simultaneous cause of one effect, I consider them all, in that respect,
as one individual.
Axioms- The essence of man does not involve necessary existence; that is, from the
order of Nature it is equally possible that a certain man exists or does not exist.