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Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect
Baruch Spinoza
An essay on method that opens with one of the most famous autobiographical pages in philosophy: the experience that the goods men pursue—wealth, honour, pleasure—are vain, and the resolve to seek a true good that would give continuous and supreme joy. It distinguishes four modes of perception, analyses the true idea, fiction, falsity and doubt, and seeks the way to direct the intellect towards knowledge of nature. It is the most accessible way into his thought.
French
Translated by Émile Saisset · 3 chapters · 1 h reading
Latin
· 16 chapters · 1 h reading
- 1I. De bonis quae homines plerumque appetunt.3′
- 2II. De bono vero et summo.2′
- 3III. Quaedam vivendi regulae.1′
- 4IV. De diversis percipiendi modis.3′
- 5V. De optimo modo percipiendi.1′
- 6VI. De intellectus instrumentis, ideis veris.3′
- 7VII. De recta methodo cognoscendi.5′
- 8VIII. Methodi pars prima. De idea ficta.8′
- 9IX. De idea falsa.6′
- 10X. De idea dubia.2′
- 11XI. De memoria et oblivione. Conclusio.4′
- 12XII. Methodi pars secunda. De duplici perceptione.1′
- 13XIII. De conditionibus definitionis.2′
- 14XIV. De mediis quibus res aeternas cognoscuntur.3′
- 15XV. De viribus intellectus eiusque proprietatibus.3′
- 16Notes5′