Reflexive Ideas in Spinoza

Abstract

fl i Id " Sp" Re ex ve eas in lnoza LEE C. RICE 1. INTRODUCTION IN THE SECOND PART OF THE ETHICS 1Spinoza declares that there is an idea not just of every extended mode or physical object, but of every mode whatsoever? Two sets of distinct problems have arisen from this "thought-everything" parallelism . The first is the question of the extent to which thought may be a "privileged " attribute in Spinozism, insofar as it contains within itself representations of all other modes of all Other attributes. This problem has been dealt with extensively by Hallett,3 Parkinson,4 Harris,5 and Gu6roult6within the context of Spinoza's philosophy, and has been subjected to analysis and criticism from a I am indebted to the Editor and to Professor Errol Harris for comments and suggested revisions of an earlier draft of this paper. All translations from Spinoza are my own. The Latin source used is that of Van Vloten and Land, with verification of variant readings against Gebhardt. In the translations, I have profited from the translations in the Pl~iade edition. References to the works of Spinoza are all internal, following the standard convention (E2P2oDem is the Demonstration of Prop. 20 of Ethics, Part 9). The most usable editions of Spinoza are: Collected Works, vol. l, trans. E. Curley (Princeton, NJ: Princton University Press, 1985); Ethique, trans. C. Appuhn (Paris: Vrin, 1977); Ethics and Selected Letters, trans. Samuel Shirley (Indianapolis: Hackett, i982); Oeuvres compldtes,trans. R. Caillois, M. Franc~s and R. Misrahi (Paris: Pl6iade, 1954); On the Improvement of the Understanding, trans. J. Katz (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958); Opera quotqnot repertasunt, ed.J. Van Vloten andJ. P. N. Land, 4 volumes (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1914); Opera, ed. C. Gebhardt, 4 volumes (Heidelberg: Carl Winters, 19~5); Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being, ed. and trans. A. Wolf (New York: Russell and Russell, 1963). E2P3: "In Deo datur necessario idea, tam ejus essentiae, quam omnium, quae ex ipsius essentia necessario sequuntur." 3 H. F. Hallett, Benedict De Spinoza: The Elements of HIS Philosophy (London: Athlone Press, 1957), 58-69 • 4 G. H. R. Parkinson, Spinoza's Theory ofKnowledge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), 1o8-1o 9. s See Errol E. Harris, "The Order and Connexion of Ideas," in Spinoza on Knowing, Being, and Freedom, ed. J. G. van der Bend (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1974), lO3-lS; and "Infinity of Attributes and Idea ldeae," Neue Heftefftr PhilosopMe 19 (1977): 9-2o. 6 Martial Gu6r6ult, Sp/noza (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1968-1974), a: 468-79 . See also Ginette Dreyfus, "Sur le Spinoza de Martial Gu6roult: R6ponses aux objections de M. Doz," Cahiers Spinoza 2 (1978): 7-52- [2ol] 902 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 28:2 APRIL i99 o more external perspective by a host of commentators. 7It is safe to say that its final resolution is not yet at hand. A second problem, which is the subject of this paper, relates to the further consequence of E2P3 that, since there must be ideas of every object, and since ideas themselves are objects (modes) in Spinoza's universe, there must be ideas of ideas. This consequence is taken up by Spinoza beginning with Proposition 9o of E2, and developed at considerable length. It is worthwhile to quote the first four propositions which initiate this development: EgP2o: There is also in God the idea or knowledge of the human mind, and this follows in God and is related to God in the same way as the idea or knowledge of the human body. E2P2 l: The idea of the mind is united to the mind in the same manner as the mind is united to the body. EgP22: The human mind perceives not only the affections (modifications) of the body, but also the ideas of these affections. E2P~3: The mind does not know itself except insofar as it perceives ideas of affections of the body. Most commentators see in the doctrine of/deae idearum, or reflexive ideas, an important component of the theory of mind developed at length in E2; but when it comes to an explicitation of the exact nature of their role, and the manner in...