'P.XXII. the human mind not only perceives the affections of the body, but also the
ideas of the affectations.
Demonstration. The ideas of the ideas of affections follow in God and are related to
God in the same way as the ideas themselves of affections. This is demonstrated like
Proposition XX, part II. But the ideas of the affections of the human body are in the
human mind (Proposition XII, part II) that is to say, in God (Proposition XI, part II,
Corollary), in so far as He constitutes the essence of the human mind; therefore, the
ideas of these ideas will be in God in so far as He has knowledge or idea of the human
mind; that is to say (Proposition 21, part II), they will be in the human mind itself,
which therefore, not only perceives the affections of the body, but also the idea of the
affections.'
the mind perceives the affections of the body but also the ideas of these affections
so a state of the body is perceived by the mind - which must mean the person is aware
of the state of the body
this awareness is an internalization of the surface event
on reflection the event has a double aspect - an internal and external dimension
a conscious - and as a matter of logic a non-conscious dimension
the experience of the affection though - is not divided -
the experience is unified
to say the event has an internal and external dimension is really to analyze it
and we do this in order to describe - so as to be able to understand it - and we have to
have some understanding of it in order to deal with it
prior to this analytical treatment the event - the unified event - is unknown
unknown in the sense that it is without character
the event is a result of the relation of consciousness and non-consciousness
underlying the unified event is this relation -
and the relation just is the meeting of mind and matter
characterization of the event is the reflective function of consciousness
you could argue from this that mind and matter are fundamentally explanatory
categories - whose function is to provide a basis on which the event of experience - in
itself unknown - can be tackled - and for all intents and purposes - be made 'known'
anyway such is a very radical view of things and it is not one I am going to pursue
right now
back to Spinoza
I would put that the awareness of the affection - just is the idea of it
Spinoza wants to say that the mind perceives the idea of the affection
and this is to say the affection has an ideational dimension to it - quite regardless of
whether the event is known
ideas - are conceptions of mind - and every thing - every event is thus a conception -
as well as an extended thing
so on this view - the mind - perceives conceptions - outside of itself
ideas are as objective as stones
this is quite a radical view of things
what it means is that for Spinoza - there is one dimension - what you would call the
outside -
everything is objective
mind is not as I have represented it an internal dimension
there is no internality for Spinoza
I can understand why his theory demands this - but I find it quite bizarre
it amounts to saying there is no inner life
everything is revealed
mind / matter - it's all out there -
if you are to argue such a view you must accept that as a consequence the idea of
internality and externality - must be abandoned
if there is no internality - then there is no externality
if there is no inside there is no outside - no surface
so where are you going to place your ideas or your stones?
