Hi All (especially the "silent majority" of the group :-),

    It seems that we each have different styles of expressing ourselves in our postings here and of course, how could it be otherwise? I assume that there are many individuals who have only begun to study carefully the ideas Spinoza expressed in his various writings and I sympathize with any bewilderment felt in such an initial endeavour. I also assume that others have spent enough time and effort on such study to feel more comfortable with the terminology and concepts expressed by Spinoza and so they may be looking to further their understanding in one or another specific area. Then of course there may be those who are very advanced in their Understanding of the Ideas Spinoza expressed. These folks may simply enjoy helping others to come to the level of Understanding that they have attained (Spinoza wrote that this was part of his own happiness) and in the process perhaps, as Spinoza also expressed, "to ascend a step higher" in their own Understanding.

    Now, it seems to me that most of us as individuals must go through stages that roughly correspond with the order mentioned above and that the middle stage presents many problems which, although for different reasons, are not as difficult to overcome in the first and third stages. We all have acquired certain basic reading and writing skills and have had many different experiences in our lives which allow us to continue to exist, and, at some point, we have taken an interest in Spinoza's writings. How does one approach and further their possible Understanding of the Ideas Spinoza is trying to convey to his readers?

    If a subject is new to me, and I am interested in understanding more about it, then I know that I will have to wrestle with new terminology and concepts for a while and I accept that. Much of this initial stage necessarily involves Knowledge of the First Kind or Imagination; words and images. I read or I talk with others, perhaps I experience some particular new situations or things, swap stories with others about our own particular experiences, etc. I expect that others know more than I know at this point and so I listen carefully and try to follow the meaning of almost anyone who seems to posses some particular knowledge.

    If I continue as above, and I work at it, my mind MAY begin to form some new concepts through Reason or the Second Kind of Knowledge. Spinoza writes of Reason:

====== Short Treatise, Part 2, Chapter 26:
...reasoning is not the principal thing in us, but only like a staircase by which we can climb up to the desired place, or like a good genius which, without any falsity or deception, brings us tidings of the highest good in order thereby to stimulate us to pursue it, and to become united with it; which union is our supreme happiness and bliss....
======

...and apparently he means that those who are working their way up this staircase have either not yet attained the higher kind of Understanding to which it might lead, or, if they have found the staircase helpful for themselves, then they may be engaged in helping others make the climb until they too begin to see beyond toward that "Highest Good" which Spinoza writes about but cannot directly explain. For many things in life, taking just a few steps above Imagination is enough to bring great outer rewards and satisfaction, not the least of which outer reward tends to be the acknowledgment from others that our assumed understanding exceeds the norm. This is a stage where many of us become "wise teachers" (in our own imagination anyway) not realizing that what is actually occurring is that; "we think that what we more readily imagine is clearer to us; and also we think that what we imagine we understand" (TEI-P90(67)) , and so we forget all about any possible higher steps which Reason may provide, believing that we have already finished the climb which we have actually barely begun. This can be a very difficult thing to realize because Clear Thinking and Reasoning require much continued effort and care, not only for those who try to express things by Reasoning, but, just as importantly, on the part of those trying to follow those expressions of Reasoning such as Spinoza provided for us. Spinoza pointed this out in:

====== TPT05-P21:
    If anyone wishes to persuade his fellows for or against anything which is not self-evident, he must deduce his contention from their admissions, and convince them either by experience or by ratiocination; either by appealing to facts of natural experience, or to self-evident intellectual axioms. Now unless the experience be of such a kind as to be clearly and distinctly understood, though it may convince a man, it will not have the same effect on his mind and disperse the clouds of his doubt so completely as when the doctrine taught is deduced entirely from intellectual axioms - that is, by the mere power of the understanding and logical order, and this is especially the case in spiritual matters which have nothing to do with the senses.

    But the deduction of conclusions from general truths a priori, usually requires a long chain of arguments, and, moreover, very great caution, acuteness, and self-restraint - qualities which are not often met with; therefore people prefer to be taught by experience rather than deduce their conclusion from a few axioms, and set them out in logical order....
======

    Now, if anyone has reached, or let's say, approached, Knowledge of the Third Kind or Intuitive Knowledge, that is, the goal toward which Spinoza says his stairway of Reason is leading (at least for those who keep climbing), then they apparently will discover a fundamentally different and much more rewarding type of Knowledge than that attained while climbing on the stairway. And, if anyone has approached that level and can write clearly and directly about it, then I think that is marvelous and a thing to be wondered at. However, Spinoza did little writing of this sort, in my view, but rather he expressed his ideas through Reasoning, even when naming and referring to Intuition towards the end of the Ethics staircase (toward the higher end of course.)

    Staying with Spinoza's staircase metaphor, this may sound silly, but my own imagination now and then presents the image of one of those movable staircases such as they have at small airports to get into and out of larger airplanes from the ground. Just a few steps, maybe five or six. This image occurs sometimes when I'm studying the proof of a proposition, as I go back and read the several earlier elements on which this particular proposition is based, and then I try to "step up" from those few ideas to the new idea. Notice that every proof follows the general idea that:

======= E2: PROP 40:
    Whatsoever ideas in the mind follow from ideas which are therein adequate, are also themselves adequate.
=======

    If I have an adequate idea of those earlier elements at the time, which Spinoza refers us to, then my own mind affirms the new idea. If I only have the words in my imagination, then my mind hesitates, and so I need to try again or to go back and study more closely those earlier elements. Or perhaps I just need to come back to this proposition at another time. It can be frustrating to sometimes have a clear idea and then come back at another time to the same proposition and to see only the words. This is why we need, as Spinoza urges, to go over what he has written many times, since this is a most difficult climb. Often, without realizing that it is happening, we find ourselves back on the ground, having wandered there when our effort slackened, but hopefully we have tasted something wonderful and will mount those stairs again and again and rise to ever new heights.

    Everything in the Ethics is part of a grand staircase, but it can be broken down into more manageable steps, and, with exercise and effort, our view will broaden and we will begin to see more and more of the Grand View and by so doing we will find our mind rising toward that Highest Good Spinoza realized for himself and is endevouring in his writings to help others to realize too.

    Best Regards,
        Terry