Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Ethics — Part 5
    Ethics — Part 5
    Ethics — Part 5
    Ebook58 pages48 minutes

    Ethics — Part 5

    By R. H. M. (Robert Harvey Monro) Elwes and Benedictus de Spinoza

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 25, 2013
    Ethics — Part 5

    Read more from R. H. M. (Robert Harvey Monro) Elwes

    Related to Ethics — Part 5

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      We Are Beast Machines

      Oct 13, 2021

      I have a childhood memory of looking in the bathroom mirror, and for the first time realizing that my experience at that precise moment—the experience of being me—would at some point come to an end, and that “I” would die. I must have been about 8 or

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Labyrinth Of Personal IDENTITY

      Sep 6, 2021

      There are some philosophers who imagine we are every moment intimately conscious of what we call our SELF; that we feel its existence and its continuance in existence; and are certain, beyond the evidence of a demonstration, both of its perfect ident

      16 min read

    • Article

      We Are Beast Machines

      Dec 20, 2021

      Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our “The Edge” issue in October, 2021. I have a childhood memory of looking in the bathroom mirror, and for the first time

      8 min read

    • Article

      Soul

      Dec 28, 2018

      Soul
      8 min read

    • Article

      Nothing Solid, Nothing Separate

      Feb 11, 2020

      Nothing Solid, Nothing Separate
      9 min read

    • Article

      Emotional Intelligence Needs a Rewrite

      Mar 12, 2020

      You’ve probably met people who are experts at mastering their emotions and understanding the emotions of others. When all hell breaks loose, somehow these individuals remain calm. They know what to say and do when their boss is moody or their lover i

      9 min read

    • Article

      Emotional Intelligence Needs a Rewrite

      Aug 3, 2017

      You’ve probably met people who are experts at mastering their emotions and understanding the emotions of others. When all hell breaks loose, somehow these individuals remain calm. They know what to say and do when their boss is moody or their lover i

      9 min read

    • Article

      Intuition

      Apr 30, 2019

      Intuition
      12 min read

    • Article

      How Samsara Works

      Jan 19, 2021

      ONE of the core insights of the Buddha—that all phenomena arise and pass away in profound interdependence with one another—is said to have come to him on the night of his awakening. Traditional sources portray him as seeking a solution to suffering,

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Perception Of Something

      Nov 7, 2020

      A Perception Of Something
      9 min read

    • Article

      Still Streams

      Mar 31, 2020

      Still Streams
      3 min read

    • Article

      Antonio Damasio Tells Us Why Pain Is Necessary

      Jan 18, 2018

      Following Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio may be the neuroscientist whose popular books have done the most to inform readers about the biological machinery in our heads, how it generates thoughts and emotions, creates a self to cling to, and a sense of

      12 min read

    • Article

      How Do We Create Our Reality?

      Mar 2, 2021

      How Do We Create Our Reality?
      8 min read

    • Article

      Self-control

      Nov 1, 2021

      Self-control
      5 min read

    • Article

      Consciousness Isn’t Self-Centered

      Feb 27, 2020

      The great mystery of consciousness is why matter lights up with felt experience. After all, we are composed of particles indistinguishable from those swirling around in the sun; the atoms that compose your body were once the ingredients of countless

      10 min read

    • Article

      Currents Of Life

      Nov 30, 2021

      Currents Of Life
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Transcendence of Tantric Sex

      Aug 18, 2021

      Humans have always strived to develop technologies that give us some control, or at least the feelings of control, over the challenges that life throws at us. Psychologists like me devote our professional lives to figuring out why people think and fe

      7 min read

    • Article

      My Out-of-Body Experience

      Jan 19, 2022

      Two years ago, I decided to do nothing. Not for the rest of my life, of course—for two hours. As a neuroscientist, I was already familiar with the evidence that mindfulness meditation, or attending to the present moment, is beneficial for stress and

      6 min read

    • Article

      Discovering Reality

      Jul 20, 2021

      Discovering Reality
      6 min read

    • Article

      Trying Not to Try: Modern science and Chinese philosophy tell us similar stories about how we think.

      Feb 6, 2014

      In a famous story from ancient Chinese philosophy, Butcher Ding has been called upon to play his part in a traditional religious ceremony. The ritual, to consecrate a newly cast bronze bell, requires the butcher to sacrifice an ox in a public space,

      13 min read

    • Article

      Consciousness Is Perfectly Clear

      Mar 2, 2021

      Consciousness Is Perfectly Clear
      9 min read

    • Article

      What Mind Is Made Of

      Jan 22, 2019

      What Mind Is Made Of
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Playful Dance of Awakened Mind

      Mar 11, 2024

      The Playful Dance of Awakened Mind
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Unknown Lever

      Jun 29, 2021

      The Unknown Lever
      4 min read

    • Article

      RAIN Meditation

      May 21, 2019

      RAIN Meditation
      3 min read

    • Article

      Human Emotions Are Personal Narratives

      Aug 29, 2019

      For his next book, Joseph LeDoux knew he had to go deep. He had to go back in time, way back, 3.5 billion years ago. The author of the seminal The Emotional Brain, followed by Synaptic Self and Anxious, sensed a missing element in those books on how

      10 min read

    Reviews for Ethics — Part 5

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Ethics — Part 5 - R. H. M. (Robert Harvey Monro) Elwes

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ethics [Part V], by Benedict de Spinoza

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Ethics [Part V]

      Author: Benedict de Spinoza

      Translator: R. H. M. Elwes

      Posting Date: April 15, 2013 [EBook #975] Release Date: July, 1997 First Posted: July 6, 1997

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ETHICS [PART V] ***

      Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.

      Benedict de Spinoza, THE ETHICS

      (Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata)

      Translated by R. H. M. Elwes

      PART V: Of the Power of the Understanding, or of Human Freedom

      PREFACE At length I pass to the remaining portion of my Ethics, which is concerned with the way leading to freedom. I shall therefore treat therein of the power of the reason, showing how far the reason can control the emotions, and what is the nature of Mental Freedom or Blessedness; we shall then be able to see, how much more powerful the wise man is than the ignorant. It is no part of my design to point out the method and means whereby the understanding may be perfected, nor to show the skill whereby the body may be so tended, as to be capable of the due performance of its functions. The latter question lies in the province of Medicine, the former in the province of Logic. Here, therefore, I repeat, I shall treat only of the power of the mind, or of reason; and I shall mainly show the extent and nature of its dominion over the emotions, for their control and moderation. That we do not possess absolute dominion over them, I have already shown. Yet the Stoics have thought, that the emotions depended absolutely on our will, and that we could absolutely govern them. But these philosophers were compelled, by the protest of experience, not from their own principles, to confess, that no slight practice and zeal is needed to control and moderate them: and this someone endeavoured to illustrate by the example (if I remember rightly) of two dogs, the one a house-dog and the other a hunting-dog. For by long training it could be brought about, that the house-dog should become accustomed to hunt, and the hunting-dog to cease from running after hares. To this opinion Descartes not a little inclines. For he maintained, that the soul or mind is specially united to a particular part of the brain, namely, to that part called the pineal gland, by the aid of which the mind is enabled to feel all the movements which are set going in the body, and also external objects, and which the mind by a simple act of volition can put in motion in various ways. He asserted, that this gland is so suspended in the midst of the brain, that it could be moved by the slightest motion of the animal spirits: further, that this gland is suspended in the midst of the brain in as many different manners, as the animal spirits can impinge thereon; and, again, that as many different marks are impressed on the said gland, as there are different external objects which impel the animal spirits towards it; whence it follows, that if the will of the soul suspends the gland in a position, wherein it has already been suspended once before by the animal spirits driven in one way or another, the gland in its turn reacts on the said spirits, driving and determining them to the condition wherein they were, when repulsed before by a similar position of the gland. He further asserted, that every act of mental volition is united in nature to a certain given motion of the gland. For instance, whenever anyone desires to look at a remote object, the act of volition causes the pupil of the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1