The Imagination In Spinoza And Hume A Comparative Study In The Light Of Some Recent Contributions To Psychology PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ... PART I. A STATEMENT OF SPINOZA'S THEORY OF THE IMAGINATION. Spinoza's identification of the imagination with the source of all falsehood, error, and confusion--a doctrine which runs in varying forms through nearly all of his works, and which is so fully and consistently worked out, taking it as a whole, that it may fairly be called a theory of the imagination -- is not to be intelligently stated or appreciated, it almost goes without saying, apart from the main body of his philosophyWhat was the need, the problem, that this doctrine arose to meet? What did it contribute toward the attainment of the end proposed as a solution? In what respects, if any, does it appear inconsistent, or inadequate ? and why? These questions openly confess to the assumptions that Spinoza was conscious of a problem, did propose a certain end as a solution, and developed a theory of the imagination as one of the means--not necessarily the only one--of attaining the end. It is believed, however, that these assumptions rest on Spinoza's own statements, especially on those in the autobiographical portion of that propaedeutic to his philosophy, the Tractatus de Intcllectus Emendation c. SEC. I. THE NATURE OF SPINOZA'S PROBLEM. Experience, we are told in the Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione, had taught Spinoza that the commonly accepted goods of life are vain and futile; that the all-absorbing ideals commonly conceived to constitute the summum bonum -- riches, fame, and the pleasures of sense-- when realized are found to be uncertain and fleeting, followed by melancholy and a dulled intellect in the case of the pleasures of sense, and by perpetual dissatisfaction with successive attainment in the case of fame and riches. The same problem is suggested elsewhere...