On True Knowledge by Baruch Spinoza
True knowledge is presented as the fourth and final kind of knowledge, arising not from another thing but from the immediate revelation of its object to the understanding. When this object is glorious and good, the soul necessarily loves and becomes united with it. Since God can be known in this manner only as the most glorious and best of all, knowledge of God necessarily produces union with Him, and blessedness consists solely in this union. Perfect or adequate knowledge of God is not required: partial knowledge is enough for union, just as imperfect knowledge of the body nevertheless allows a powerful union and love. This knowledge of God is immediate because God is the cause of all knowledge, is known through Himself alone, and is so naturally united with us that we can neither exist nor be known without Him. Everything in Nature has an Idea in the soul, and the degree of perfection in a thing corresponds to the perfection of its Idea’s union and influence with that thing, or with God. Nature is one infinite substance, so all things are united in one being, God. The body is the first thing of which the soul is aware, and thus the first cause of its Idea. Yet the Idea cannot rest in knowledge of the body, because both body and Idea depend on that without which they cannot exist or be understood. Having known this necessary, incorporeal reality, the soul is immediately united with it through love. The effects of this union must far surpass the bodily effects produced through knowledge and feeling toward corporeal things. Awareness of these new effects constitutes a second birth. The first birth is union with the body and the activities of the vital spirits; the second arises from love and knowledge of the incorporeal object. This is rightly called Regeneration because only this love and union bring eternal and unchangeable existence.
By Baruch Spinoza · First published 1660 · Genre: Philosophical Treatise, Metaphysics, Epistemology · 873 words
First lines
Since mere comprehension has no power to lead us to the attainment of our well-being, it remains for us to inquire whether we can attain it through the fourth, and last, kind of knowledge. Now we have said that this kind of knowledge does not result from something else, but from a direct revelation of the object itself to the understanding. And if that object is glorious and good, then the soul becomes necessarily united with it, as we have also remarked with reference to our body. Hence it follows incontrovertibly that it is this knowledge which evokes love. So that when we get to know God after this manner then (as He cannot reveal Himself, nor become known to us otherwise than as the most glorious and best of all) we must necessarily become united with Him. And only in this union, as we have already remarked, does our blessedness consist.
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On True Knowledge is listed on Textopian as an essay by Baruch Spinoza, dated 1660 CE.
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- Work type: Essay
- Author: Baruch Spinoza
- Date: 1660 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Philosophical Treatise, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics
- Length: 873 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Difficult (College Level)
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Genres
- Philosophical Treatise — The work develops a systematic argument about kinds of knowledge, the nature of God, human well-being, and the union of mind with the divine.
- Metaphysics — It examines ultimate reality through claims that Nature is one infinite substance, identified with God, and that all things are united within it.
- Epistemology — Its central concern is the fourth and highest kind of knowledge, described as immediate knowledge of God and contrasted with knowledge derived from other sources.
- Philosophy of Religion — The text investigates knowledge of God, divine immanence, blessedness, love of God, and the soul's relation to the divine.
Tags
philosophy · epistemology · metaphysics · rationalism · ethics · logic · truth · knowledge · reason · intellect · mind · reality