pp2p05 forma

Forms | formalis formaliter formare
Meaning | The meaning is problematic and contested. Most often: (really) existing. Formaliter frequently occurs logically opposed to objective. This is a pair opposing a thing considered as an actual, real thing to that same thing considered merely as it features in an idea as the object of that idea. Authoritative translators go different ways translating forma: Jacob Stern in his translation to German consistently renders: "formal", Appuhn into French consistently: "formel(le)", but Van Suchtelen into Dutch makes varying ad hoc choices, as into English Elwes does (all translations on http://ethicadb.org/. We follow the interesting struggles of Elwes and van Suchtelen below.
Mantras [what is] | esse formale
Related concepts | pp1d03 esse, dari, pp1d01 existere, existentia
Occurrence | [geomap]
NOT linked | Formare to shape, form, make, produce, related to causa esse. Formare conceptus = concipere, formare idea similar

1p17s Deum causam liberam ... Elwes renders: formal , van Suchtelen: werkelijk [Eng: real] ...
... formal essence of things is as it is, because it exists by representation as such in the intellect of God. ... .. | ... ... formalis rerum essentia ideo talis est quia talis in Dei intellectu existit objective ...
Van Suchtelen's translator's note concerning 1p17s formal:
English translation | Dutch (original)
Proposition 17, Corollarium. Formalis rerum essentia, Ens (or Esse) formale or reale, translated by Spinoza himself [in Dutch BH] into 'being endowed with form, operating'. Having-form, really-existing, as opposed to ens rationis, ([called in Dutch BH] "being of Reason", [by] Sp.), being in as far as it merely exists in thinking. Forma, aard [no clear and distinct Eng. equiv. BH], essence, nature, form of being [the Dutch word "werkelijk", now simply meaning "real", in old Dutch (now obsolete) relates to "werken", "working, operating", that is, barely - see pp1d07 operare - distinguishable from the old (and obsolete) Dutch "dadelijk" used by Spinoza BH] | Van Suchtelen: "St. 17 Opm. Formalis rerum essentia, Ens (of Esse) formale of reale, door Spinoza zelf vertaald met 'formelijk, dadelijk wezen'. Vorm-hebbend, werkelijk-bestaand, feitelijk, in tegenstelling met ens rationis (wezen van Reden, Sp.), wezen voorzover het slechts in de voorstelling bestaat. Forma, aard, wezen, natuur, bestaansvorm"

{2p05 Esse formale idearum} ... Elwes renders: actual, van Suchtelen: werkelijk [Eng: real] ... ideas are indirectly in God = natura-sense 2 = substance, namely under the attribute of cogitatio ... but whether or not such ideas actually exist (esse formale) is directly caused by God, unmediated by any attribute ...
... The actual being of ideas owns God as its cause, only in so far as he is considered as a thinking thing, not in so far as he is unfolded in any other attribute; that is, the ideas both of the attributes of God and of particular things do not own as their efficient cause their objects (ideata) or the things perceived, but God himself in so far as he is a thinking thing. | ... Esse formale idearum Deum quatenus tantum ut res cogitans consideratur, pro causa agnoscit et non quatenus alio attributo explicatur. Hoc est tam Dei attributorum quam rerum singularium ideae non ipsa ideata sive [mng eqv] res perceptas pro causa efficiente agnoscunt sed ipsum Deum quatenus est res cogitans.

{2p06c res ideatae ex suis attributis} ... Elwes renders: actual, van Suchtelen: formeel [in werkelijkheid] [Eng: formal, in reality] ...
... ..the actual being of things, which are not modes of thought, does not follow from the divine nature, because that nature has prior knowledge of the things. Things represented in ideas follow, and are derived from their particular attribute, in the same manner, and with the same necessity as ideas follow (according to what we have shown) from the attribute of thought. | ... esse formale rerum quae modi non sunt cogitandi, non sequitur ideo ex divina natura quia res prius cognovit sed eodem modo eademque necessitate res ideatae ex suis attributis consequuntur et concluduntur ac ideas ex attributo cogitationis consequi ostendimus.

{2p07c formaliter objective} ... Elwes renders: in the world of extension^in the world of thought, van Suchtelen: formeel [in werkelijkheid] [Eng: formal, in reality] ...
... ... God's power of thinking is equal to his realized power of action—that is, whatsoever follows from the infinite nature of God in the world of extension (formaliter), follows without exception in the same order and connection from the idea of God in the world of thought (objective). | ... Dei cogitandi potentia qualis est ipsius actualiae agendi potentiae. Hoc est quicquid ex infinita Dei natura sequitur formaliter, id omne ex Dei idea eodem ordine eademque connexione sequitur in Deo objective.

2p07s substantia cogitans et substantia extensa una ... Elwes renders: actual, van Suchtelen: werkelijke [Eng: real] ... this quote refers to {2p08c rerum non existentium ideae non existunt} which extends the notion of existence to the realm of ideas, saying: if an idea is about a non-existing thing then that idea itself does not exist ... the quote below expands on that: just as the existence of a circle in the attribute of extension is caused by some other extended thing, the existence (in the sense of {2p08c}) of the idea of that circle in thought is caused by another idea ... and these two causations reveal the same since NOT the attributes are causa proxima of their isomorphic ordo and connexio, but substance itself, perceived by us through two intermediary attributes mirroring the same substance ...
... God is the cause of an idea—for instance, of the idea of a circle,—in so far as he is a thinking thing; and of a circle, in so far as he is an extended thing, simply because the actual being of the idea of a circle can only be perceived as a proximate cause through another mode of thinking ... . | ... Deus sit causa ideae exempli gratia circuli quatenus tantum est res cogitans et circuli quatenus tantum est res extensa nisi quia esse formale ideae circuli non nisi per alium cogitandi modum tanquam causam proximam ...

{2p08 rerum non existentium} ... Elwes renders : formal, van Suchtelen: werkelijk [Eng: real] ...
... The ideas of particular things, or of modes, that do not exist, must be comprehended in the infinite idea of God, in the same way as the formal essences of particular things or modes are contained in the attributes of God. | ... ideae rerum singularium sive [non exclusive exhaustive] modorum non existentium ita debent comprehendi in Dei infinita idea ac rerum singularium sive modorum essenti formales in Dei attributis continentur.

{2p10 hominis substanti formam} ... Elwes renders: actual, van Suchtelen: aard [Eng: no unambiguous English equivalent] ... (locally, substantia only applies to existing things) ...
... .The being of substance does not appertain to the essence of man—in other words, substance does not constitute the actual being[2] of man. [2] "Forma" | ... Ad essentiam hominis non pertinet esse substantiae sive [mng-eqv] substantia formam hominis non constituit.

{2L04 alia succedant} ... similar in {2L06} ... Elwes renders: actuality, van Suchtelen: karakter [Eng: character] ...
... ..If from a body or individual ... .certain bodies be separated, and ... .same time ... .other bodies ... .take their place, the individual will preserve its nature as before, without any change in its actuality (forma). | ... Si corporis sive individui ... corporia segregentur et simul ... alia ... loco succedant, retinebit individuum suam naturam uti antea absque ulla ejus formae mutatione.

{2L06 qua antea ratione communicare} ... Elwes renders: actual being, van Suchtelen: karakter [Eng: character] ...
... the individual is supposed to retain all that, which, in its definition, we spoke of as its actual being. | ... Id enim omne retinere supponitur quod in ejusdem definitione formam ipsius constituere diximus.

{2p15 Idea mentis composita} ... (and passim) Elwes renders: actual , van Suchtelen: werkelijk [Eng: real] ...
... actual being of the human mind ... | ... esse formale humanae mentis ...

2p21s mentem et corpus unum ... Elwes: distictive quality, van Suchtelen recheck ...
... the idea of the mind, that is, the idea of an idea, is nothing but the distinctive quality (forma) of the idea in so far as it is conceived as a mode of thought without reference to the object ... | ... idea mentis hoc est idea ideae nihil aliud est quam forma ideae quatenus haec ut modus cogitandi absque relatione ad objectum consideratur ...

{2p24 Mens partium corpus non involvit} ... Elwes renders: distinctive quality, van Suchtelen: karakter [Eng: character] and for natura renders: aard [Eng: no unambiguous equivalent] ...
... can be separated from the human body without in any way destroying the nature and distinctive quality of the latter ... | ... a corpore humano, servata omnino ejusdem natura et forma, segregari possunt ... .

{2p33 Nihil positivum falsae} ... Elwes renders: distinctive quality, van Suchtelen: konden worden genoemd [Eng: could be called] ...
... the distinctive quality oof falsehood ... | ... formam erroris sive [mng-eqv] falsitatis ...

{2p35 Falsitas consistit privatione} ... Elwes renders: cause to be called, van Suchtelen: wezen [Eng: essence] ...
... .There is nothing positive in ideas, which causes them to be called false ... | ... Nihil in ideis positivum datur quod falsitatis formam constituat ...

2p40s2 percipere 1 sensus mutilate 2 signis 3 notiones communes ... Elwes renders: absolute, van Suchtelen: werkelijk [Eng: real] ...
... third kind of knowledge, which we will call intuition. This kind of knowledge proceeds from an adequate idea of the absolute essence of certain attributes of God to the adequate knowledge of the essence of things ... | ... cognitionis genera ... tertium quod scientiam intuitivam vocabimus. Atque hoc cognoscendi genus procedit ab adaequata idea essentiae formalis quorundam Dei attributorum ad adaequatam cognitionem essentiae rerum ...

2p49s certitudinem non involvit in falsis acquiescere ... Elwes renders: actual reality, van Suchtelen: wezen [Eng: essence] ...
... which constitutes the actual reality of falsehood ... | ... quod falsitatis formam constituit ...

{3dg AFFECTUUM GENERALIS DEFINITIO} ... Elwes renders: reality, van Suchtelen: wezen [Eng: essence] ...
... reality of an emotion ... | ... affectus formam ...

4praef ... Elwes renders: reality (again {4p39}, {5p02})). Van Suchtelen: bestaansvorm [Eng: form of existence], Spinoza: equates forma to essentia ...
... essence or reality ... | ... .essentia seu [eqv-mng] forma ...

{5p31 Tertium mente aeterna} ... Elwes renders: formal, van Suchtelen: werkelijk [Eng: real], Spinoza equates formali causa to causa aadaequate ...
... ... The third kind of knowledge depends on the mind, as its formal cause, in so far as the mind itself is eternal. ... is the adequate or formal cause ... | ... .Tertium cognitionis genus pendet a mente tanquam a formali causa quatenus mens ipsa aeterna est. ... causa est adaequata seu [mng-eqv] formalis ...

Equivalence claims involving forma
{2p10} | 1. The being of substance does not appertain to the essence of man 2. substance does not constitute the actual being of man. | 1. Ad essentiam hominis non pertinet esse substantiae 2. substantia formam hominis non constituit.
{5p31} | 1. adequate cause 2. formal cause | 1. causa adaequata 2. [causa] formalis