The Relative Power Of Inadequate And Adequate Ideas Sample Clauses

The Relative Power Of Inadequate And Adequate Ideas. Spinoza discusses the relative powers of inadequate and adequate knowledge in Part IV, Proposition 1 of the Ethics. He states, “nothing positive contained in a false idea is annulled by the presence of what is true, insofar as it is true.” This means that if we have inadequate knowledge of something, it is not just a matter of gaining adequate knowledge of it to remove the confused experience. On the contrary, in this proposition, Spinoza demonstrates that inadequate knowledge can frequently impact and motivate us more strongly than adequate knowledge can. To illustrate this relationship, Spinoza describes the experience of looking at the sun. At first glance, the sun appears to be relatively close to the earth, and until we know otherwise, for example, as young children, we tend to think of the sun as being quite small. But the question is, ‘What happens when we come to know the truth about the distance and size of the sun?’ Interestingly, Spinoza argues that even when we know how far the sun is from the earth, we “shall nevertheless see it as being close to us” (IV P1). This is because our new-found knowledge replaces the factual error, but it cannot remove what Spinoza calls the ‘imagining’ [imaginatio], i.e., the sensory effect that the sun has on our body and, by the principle of parallelism, on our mind. According to II P17, these confused sensory imaginings can only be removed when they are replaced by other imaginings. So, in the balance of power, adequate knowledge fares less well than the concept superficially [implies], and adequate knowledge can and frequently is overpowered by inadequate knowledge or, in other words, by confused ideas.31