“ No one, who has a true idea, is ignorant that a true idea involves the highest certainty. ”
Baruch Spinoza, Ethics (1677). copy citation
Author | Baruch Spinoza |
---|---|
Source | Ethics |
Topic | certainty ideas |
Date | 1677 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by R. H. M. Elwes |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3800/3800-h/3800-h.htm |
Context
“that is, obviously, he must be assured. Q.E.D.
Note.—I explained in the note to II. xxi. what is meant by the idea of an idea; but we may remark that the foregoing proposition is in itself sufficiently plain. No one, who has a true idea, is ignorant that a true idea involves the highest certainty. For to have a true idea is only another expression for knowing a thing perfectly, or as well as possible. No one, indeed, can doubt of this, unless he thinks that an idea is something lifeless, like a picture on a panel, and not a mode of thinking—namely, the very act of understanding.”
source