| Spinoza,
"Ethics" (Gutenberg US edition) 斯賓諾莎，《倫理學》，賀麟譯，北京商務印書館，1995 |
●論神 ☉For, by substance, would be under- stood that which is in itself, and is conceived through itself—that is, something of which the conception requires not the conception of anything else; whereas modifications exist in something external to themselves, and a conception of them is formed by means of a con- ception of the thing in which they exist.(Prop.VIII) ☉Of everything whatsoever a cause or reason must be assigned, either for its existence, or for its non-existence— e.g., if a triangle exist, a reason or cause must be granted for its existence; if, on the contrary, it does not exist, a cause must also be granted, which prevents it from existing, or annuls its existence. (Prop.XI) ☉Whatsoever is, is in G-D, and without G-D nothing can be, or be conceived.(Prop.XV) ☉A thing which is conditioned to act in a particular manner, has necessarily been thus conditioned by G-D; and that which has not been conditioned by G-D cannot condition itself to act. (Prop.XXVI) ☉PROP. XXVIII Every individual thing, or everything which is finite and has a conditioned existence, cannot exist or be conditioned to act, unless it be conditioned for existence and action by a cause other than itself, which also is finite, and has a conditioned existence; and likewise this cause cannot in its turn exist, or be conditioned to act, unless it be conditioned for existence and action by another cause, which also is finite, and has a conditioned existence, and so on to infinity. （無窮因果鎖鍊） ☉Nothing in the universe is contingent,but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the Divine Nature. (Prop.XXIX) ☉The intellect in function, whether finite or infinite, as will, desire, love, etc., should be referred to passive nature and not to active Nature. (Prop.XXXI) ☉Will cannot be called a free cause,but only a necessary cause. (PROP. XXXII) ☉Things could not have been brought into being by G-D in any manner or in any order different from that which has in fact obtained. (PROP. XXXIII) ☉人類自我中心主義： Herefrom it follows first, that men think themselves free, inasmuch as they are conscious of their volitions and desires, and never even dream, in their ignorance, of the causes which have disposed them to wish and desire. (11) Secondly, that men do all things for an end, namely, for that which is useful to them, and which they seek. (12) Thus it comes to pass that they only look for a knowledge of the final causes of events, and when these are learned, they are content, as having no cause for further doubt. (Appendix, p.37) ☉There is no need to show at length, that Nature has no particular goal in view, and that final causes are mere human figments. (Appendix, p.39) ●論心靈 ☉Thought is an attribute of God, or God is a thinking thing.(Prop. I) ☉If the human body has once been affected by two or more bodies at the same time, when the mind afterwards imagines any of them, it will straightway remember the others also.(Prop. XVIII.) ☉We now clearly see what 'Memory' is. It is simply a certain association of ideas involving the nature of things outside the human body, which association arises in the mind according to the order and association of the modifications (affectiones) of the human body (p.65) ☉Hence it follows that all particular things are contingent and perishable. For we can have no adequate idea of their duration (by the last Prop.), and this is what we must understand by the contingency and perishableness of things (I.xxxiii., Note i.). For (I. xxix.), except in this sense, nothing is contingent. (p.73)（由於缺乏正確知識，故認為一切偶然） ☉For, as we have said, it is unable to imagine the definite number of individuals. We must, however, bear in mind, that these general notions are not formed by all men in the same way, but vary in each individual according as the point varies, whereby the body has been most often affected and which the mind most easily imagines or remembers. For instance, those who have most often regarded with admiration the stature of man, will by the name of man understand an animal of erect stature; those who have been accustomed to regard some other attribute, will form a different general image of man, for instance, that man is a laughing animal, a two-footed animal without feathers, a rational animal, and thus, in other cases, everyone will form general images of things according to the habit of his body. It is thus not to be wondered at, that among philosophers, who seek to explain things in nature merely by the images formed of them, so many controversies should have arisen.(p.79) ☉It is not in the nature of reason to regard things as contingent, but as necessary.(Prop XLIV.)（★★理性即是事物的必然性） ☉The human mind has an adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God.(Prop.XLVII.) （認識神的潛能） ☉In the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has also been determined by another cause, and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity. (Prop XLVIII.)（★★心靈乃受到無窮因果鎖鍊的決定！！） ☉此心靈學說的四點好處：(p.95) 1. Inasmuch as it teaches us to act solely according to the decree of God, and to be partakers in the Divine nature, and so much the more, as we perform more perfect actions and more and more understand God. Such a doctrine not only completely tranquilizes our spirit, but also shows us where our highest happiness or blessedness is, namely, solely in the knowledge of God, whereby we are led to act only as love and piety shall bid us. We may thus clearly understand, how far astray from a true estimate of virtue are those who expect to be decorated by God with high rewards for their virtue, and their best actions, as for having endured the direst slavery; as if virtue and the service of God were not in itself happiness and perfect freedom. 2. Inasmuch as it teaches us, how we ought to conduct ourselves with respect to the gifts of fortune, or matters which are not in our power, and do not follow from our nature. For it shows us, that we should await and endure fortune's smiles or frowns with an equal mind, seeing that all things follow from the eternal decree of God by the same necessity, as it follows from the essence of a triangle, that the three angles are equal to two right angles. 3. This doctrine raises social life, inasmuch as it teaches us to hate no man, neither to despise, to deride, to envy, or to be angry with any. Further, as it tells us that each should be content with his own, and helpful to his neighbour, not from any womanish pity, favour, or superstition, but solely by the guidance of reason, according as the time and occasion demand, as I will show in Part III. 4. Lastly, this doctrine confers no small advantage on the commonwealth; for it teaches how citizens should be governed and led, not so as to become slaves, but so that they may freely do whatsoever things are best. ●論情感 ☉However, such is my plan. Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same, and everywhere one and the same in her efficacy and power of action; that is, nature's laws and ordinances, whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always the same; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through nature's universal laws and rules. Thus the passions of hatred, anger, envy, and so on, considered in themselves, follow from this same necessity and efficacy of nature; they answer to certain definite causes, through which they are understood, and possess certain properties as worthy of being known as the properties of anything else, whereof the contemplation in itself affords us delight.(p.97)（反駁自然缺陷說） ☉Body cannot determine mind to think, neither can mind determine body to motion or rest or any state different from these, if such there be.(Prop.II.) ☉★★★Experience teaches us no less clearly than reason, that men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined (p.103)（自由只是一種無知的假象） ☉Anything can, accidentally, be the cause of pleasure, pain, or desire. (Prop.XV.) ☉If a man has begun to hate an object of his love, so that love is thoroughly destroyed, he will, causes being equal, regard it with more hatred than if he had never loved it, and his hatred will be in proportion to the strength of his former love. (Prop.XXXVIII) ☉He who hates anyone will endeavour to do him an injury, unless he fears that a greater injury will thereby accrue to himself; on the other hand, he who loves anyone will, by the same law, seek to benefit him.(Prop.XXXIX.) ☉Love or hatred towards a thing, which we conceive to be free, must, other conditions being similar, be greater than if it were felt towards a thing acting by necessity.(Prop.XLIX.) ☉LIV. The mind endeavours to conceive only such things as assert its power of activity. ☉LV. When the mind contemplates its own weakness, it feels pain thereat. ☉This pain, accompanied by the idea of our own weakness, is called "humility;" the pleasure, which springs from the contemplation of ourselves, is called "self-love" or "self- complacency." And inasmuch as this feeling is renewed as often as a man contemplates his own virtues, or his own power of activity, it follows that everyone is fond of narrating his own exploits, and displaying the force both of his body and mind, and also that, for this reason, men are troublesome to one another. Again, it follows that men are naturally envious (III. xxiv. note, and III. xxxii. note), rejoicing in the shortcomings of their equals, and feeling pain at their virtues.(p.143) （個人的自我中心） ☉II. "Pleasure" is the transition of a man from a less to a greater perfection. III. "Pain" is the transition of a man from a greater to a less perfection. ^^^^^Explanation--I say transition: for pleasure is not perfection itself. For, if man were born with the perfection to which he passes, he would possess the same, without the emotion of pleasure.(p.152) ☉We can easily gather from what has been said, that this depends in great measure on education. Parents, by reprobating the former class of actions, and by frequently chiding their children because of them, and also by persuading to and praising the latter class, have brought it about, that the former should be associated with pain and the latter with pleasure. This is confirmed by experience. For custom and religion are not the same among all men, but that which some consider sacred others consider profane, and what some consider honourable others consider disgraceful. According as each man has been educated, he feels repentance for a given action or glories therein. (p.158)（榮與辱只是一種制約） ☉However, these emotions, humility and self-abasement, are extremely rare. For human nature, considered in itself, strives against them as much as it can (see III. xiii., liv.); hence those, who are believed to be most self-abased and humble, are generally in reality the most ambitious and envious.(p.159) ●論情感與奴役 ☉Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.(p.166) ☉Thus we see that men are wont to style natural phenomena perfect or imperfect rather from their own prejudices, than from true knowledge of what they pronounce upon. Now we showed in the Appendix to Part I., that Nature does not work with an end in view. For the eternal and infinite Being, which we call God or Nature, acts by the same necessity as that whereby it exists.(p.167) ☉I think I have now shown the reason, why men are moved by opinion more readily than by true reason, why it is that the true knowledge of good and evil stirs up conflicts in the soul, and often yields to every kind of passion. This state of things gave rise to the exclamation of the poet: (Ov. Met. vii.20, "Video meliora proboque, Deteriora sequor.") The better path I gaze at and approve, The worse - I follow." Ecclesiastes seems to have had the same thought in his mind, when he says, "He who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." I have not written the above with the object of drawing the conclusion, that ignorance is more excellent than knowledge, or that a wise man is on a par with a fool in controlling his emotions(p.182)（天理常不能戰勝人欲） ☉first, that the foundation of virtue is the endeavour to preserve one's own being, and that happiness consists in man's power of preserving, his own being; secondly, that virtue is to be desired for its own sake, and that there is nothing more excellent or more useful to us, for the sake of which we should desire it; thirdly and lastly that suicides are weak-minded, and are overcome by external causes repugnant to their nature.(p.184)（德性是保全自我的努力） ☉Therefore, to man there is nothing more useful than man - nothing, I repeat, more excellent for preserving their being can be wished for by men, than that all should so in all points agree, that the minds and bodies of all should form, as it were, one single mind and one single body, and that all should, with one consent, as far as they are able, endeavour to preserve their being, and all with one consent seek what is useful to them all. Hence, men who are governed by reason - that is, who seek what is useful to them in accordance with reason, desire for themselves nothing, which they do not also desire for the rest of mankind, and, consequently, are just, faithful, and honourable in their conduct.(p.184) （使所有人的心靈與自己一樣） ☉Prop. XXXVII. The good which every man, who follows after virtue, desires for himself he will also desire for other men, and so much the more, in proportion as he has a greater knowledge of God. ☉Prop. XLVI. He, who lives under the guidance of reason, endeavours, as far as possible, to render back love, or kindness, for other men's hatred, anger, contempt, &c., towards him. ☉He who rightly realizes, that all things follow from the necessity of the divine nature, and come to pass in accordance with the eternal laws and rules of nature, will not find anything worthy of hatred, derision, or contempt, nor will he bestow pity on anything, but to the utmost extent of human virtue he will endeavour to do well, as the saying is, and to rejoice. We may add, that he, who is easily touched with compassion, and is moved by another's sorrow or tears, often does something which he afterwards regrets; partly because we can never be sure that an action caused by emotion is good, partly because we are easily deceived by false tears. I am in this place expressly speaking of a man living under the guidance of reason. He who is moved to help others neither by reason nor by compassion, is rightly styled inhuman, for (III: xxvii.) he seems unlike a man.(p.209) ☉Though dejection is the emotion contrary to pride, yet is the dejected man very near akin to the proud man. For, inasmuch as his pain arises from a comparison between his own infirmity and other men's power or virtue, it will be removed, or, in other words, he will feel pleasure, if his imagination be occupied in contemplating other men's faults; whence arises the proverb, "The unhappy are comforted by finding fellow-sufferers." Contrariwise, he will be the more pained in proportion as he thinks himself inferior to others; hence none are so prone to envy as the dejected, they are specially keen in observing men's actions, with a view to fault-finding rather than correction, in order to reserve their praises for dejection, and to glory therein, though all the time with a dejected air.(p.213)（自卑也是一種驕傲） ☉Prop. LXV. Under the guidance of reason we should pursue the greater of two goods and the lesser of two evils. ☉Prop. LXVII. A free man thinks of death least of all things; and his wisdom is a meditation not of death but of life.（★★生的沈思，而非死的默念） ☉XIX. Again, meretricious love, that is, the lust of generation arising from bodily beauty, and generally every sort of love, which owns anything save freedom of soul as its cause, readily passes into hate; unless indeed, what is worse, it is a species of madness; and then it promotes discord rather than harmony (cf. III:xxxi.Coroll.).（愛基於外在原因者易成恨） ☉XXII. There is in abasement a spurious appearance of piety and religion. Although abasement is the opposite to pride, yet is he that abases himself most akin to the proud (IV:lvii.Note). ☉XXV. ....Further, in his conversation he will shrink from talking of men's faults, and will be careful to speak but sparingly of human infirmity: but he will dwell at length on human virtue or power, and the way whereby it may be perfected. Thus will men be stirred not by fear, nor by aversion, but only by the emotion of joy, to endeavour, so far as in them lies, to live in obedience to reason. （用快樂的正增強，而非懲罰恫嚇） ☉Ap.XXXII. (1) But human power is extremely limited, and is infinitely surpassed by the power of external causes; we have not, therefore, an absolute power of shaping to our use those things which are without us. Nevertheless, we shall bear with an equal mind all that happens to us in contravention to the claims of our own advantage, so long as we are conscious, that we have done our duty, and that the power which we possess is not sufficient to enable us to protect ourselves completely; remembering that we are a part of universal nature, and that we follow her order. If we have a clear and distinct understanding of this, that part of our nature which is defined by intelligence, in other words the better part of ourselves, will assuredly acquiesce in what befalls us, and in such acquiescence will endeavour to persist. （盡人事聽天命） ●論理智與自由 ☉Prop.III. An emotion, which is a passion, ceases to be a passion, as soon as we form a clear and distinct idea thereof. Corollary.- An emotion therefore becomes more under our control, and the mind is less passive in respect to it, in proportion as it is more known to us. ☉IV Corollary.- Hence it follows that there is no emotion, whereof we cannot form some clear and distinct conception. For an emotion is the idea of a modification of the body (by the general Def. of the Emotions), and must therefore (by the preceding Prop.) involve some clear and distinct conception. ☉Prop.VI. The mind has greater power over the emotions and is less subject thereto, in so far as it understands all things as necessary. Proof.- The mind understands all things to be necessary (I:xxix.) and to be determined to existence and operation by an infinite chain of causes; therefore (by the foregoing Proposition), it thus far brings it about, that it is less subject to the emotions arising therefrom, and (III:xlviii.) feels less emotion towards the things themselves. Q.E.D. ☉Wherefore it is certain that those, who cry out the loudest against the misuse of honour and the vanity of the world, are those who most greedily covet it. This is not peculiar to the ambitious, but is common to all who are ill-used by fortune, and who are infirm in spirit. For a poor man also, who is miserly, will talk incessantly of the misuse of wealth and of the vices of the rich; whereby he merely torments himself, and shows the world that he is intolerant, not only of his own poverty, but also of other people's riches.(p.247) ☉XVII Corollary. Strictly speaking, God does not love or hate anyone. For God (by the foregoing Prop.) is not affected by any emotion of pleasure or pain, consequently (Def. of the Emotions:vi., &vii.) he does not love or hate anyone. ☉Prop. XIII. A mental image is more often vivid, in proportion as it is associated with a greater number of other images. ☉it appears that the mind's power over the emotions consists:- I. In the actual knowledge of the emotions (V:iv.Note). II. In the fact that it separates the emotions from the thought of an external cause, which we conceive confusedly (V:ii. and V:iv.Note). III. In the fact, that, in respect to time, the emotions referred to things, which we distinctly understand, surpass those referred to what we conceive in a confused and fragmentary manner (V:vii.). IV. In the number of causes whereby those modifications (Affectiones. Camerer reads affectus - emotions), are fostered, which have regard to the common properties of things or to God (V:ix., V:xi.). V. Lastly, in the order wherein the mind can arrange and associate, one with another, its own emotions (V:x.Note and V:xii., V:xiii., V:xiv.)(p.251). ☉Again, it must be observed, that spiritual unhealthiness; and misfortunes can generally be traced to excessive love for something which is subject to many variations, and which we can never become masters of. For no one is solicitous or anxious about anything, unless he loves it; neither do wrongs, suspicions, enmities, &c. arise, except in regard to things whereof no one can be really master.(p.252) ☉Prop. XXIV. The more we understand particular things, the more do we understand God. ☉Prop. XXXVIII. In proportion as the mind understands more things by the second and third kind of knowledge, it is less subject to those emotions which are evil, and stands in less fear of death. ☉Prop. XLII. Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself ; neither do we rejoice therein, because we control our lusts, but, contrariwise, because we rejoice therein, we are able to control our lusts.（因為幸福，所以能節制） 1999.6.22 立人祕密書齋 |