pp2a1.4 corpus humanus

Meaning | Human body, subset of {2d01_corpus}. Hence all propositions holding for corpus, hold for corpus humanus as well. The human body, strictly the part of the human body that forms that body's essence, is often simply denoted by "corpus". To disambiguate, where in Ethica "corpus" denotes the formally defined {2d01_corpus}, the link is to 2d01 and is following the general protocol cursivated ("corpus"). Wherever "corpus" denotes the philosophical primitive pp2p12 corpus humanus, the link is to this notes page pp2p12 and regular (NOT cursivated: "corpus").
Mantras [what is] | durante corpore corporis agendi potentia quatenus ad corpus refertur
Related concepts | mens, corpus
Occurrence | [geomap]
NOT linked: | corpus where not referring to "human body", "our body" is linked to {2d01_corpus}

{2a1.4 affici sentimus}
...We perceive that our body is affected in many ways. | ...Nos corpus quoddam multis modis affici sentimus.

{2p11 mentis humanae} ...Corpus humanum, here called "some particular thing", enters Ethica when dealing with mens humana...
... The first element, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is the idea of some particular thing actually existing. | ... Primum quod actuale mentis humanae esse constituit, nihil aliud est quam idea rei alicujus singularis actu existentis.

{2p12 objecto ideae contingit, debet percipi} ...while reading this, note that Ethica's concept of corpus humanus "( of) involves only its essence, not everything that happens ("contingit") to every single extended thing in every single milligram of our body: it is restricted to all the mind can sense in the coherent part of that huge and not absolutely coherently moving system. More: see proof of {2p24} (for the relevant quotes of which see below)...
...nothing can take place in the body without being perceived by the mind... | ...nihil in ...corpore poterit contingere quod a mente non percipiatur...

{2p13 corpus objectum mentem} ...the human body is just a specific type of body...
...The object of the idea constituting the human mind is the body, in other words a certain mode of extension which actually exists, and nothing else. | ...Objectum ideae humanam mentem constituentis est corpus sive [mng-eqv] certus extensionis modus actu existens et nihil aliud.

{2p13c ipsum sentimus existere} ...humans can safely trust the perceptions of their own bodies...
... the human consists of mind and body and that the human body exists exactly as we perceive it... | ...hominem mente et corpore constare et corpus humanum prout ipsum sentimus existere.
2p13s mentis et corporis unionem, praestantiorem realitatis ...the scholium of the proposition above continues:
... We thus comprehend, not only that the human mind is united to the body, but also the nature of the union between mind and body... | ...Ex his non tantum intelligimus mentem humanam unitam esse corpori sed etiam quid per mentis et corporis unionem intelligendum sit...

The contiguous series of deductive elements {2a2.1} ...{2L01}...{2a3.1},..., {2d08}, {2a3.3}, {2L04}, ..., {2L07}, introduces a strongly cartesian general physics of bodies {2d01 corpus}, after which, starting {2post01}, the subject is narrowed down to corpus humanus.

{2post03 externis plurimis modis afficitur} ..after an introduction to the nature of bodies (starting {2a2.2}) deductive elements (starting from the one quoted below) concentrate on impacts by external bodies on the human body...
... human body...affected in a variety of ways by external bodies... | ...corpus humanum ...a corporibus externis plurimis modis afficitur...

{2p15 Idea mentis composita} ...the thing called mind is the idea of its body...
...The idea constituting the actual being of the human mind is the idea of the body ... | ...Idea quae esse formale humanae mentis constituit, est idea corporis...

{2p17c quamvis non existant nec praesentia} ...Ethica's corpuscular protoneurology: how imagines or vestigia are formed in the human body (NB these are totally different from imaginationes, which are ideas produced in the mind by the operatio of the mind (mens) called imaginare)...
...When external bodies determine the fluid parts of the human body, so that they often impinge on the softer parts, they change the surface of the last named ... hence ...they are refracted therefrom in a different manner from that which they followed before such change; and, further, when afterwards they impinge on the new surfaces by their own spontaneous movement, they will be refracted in the same manner, as though they had been impelled towards those surfaces by external bodies; consequently, they will, while they continue to be thus refracted, affect the human body in the same manner, whereof the mind ...will again take cognizance-that is..., the mind will again regard the external body as present, and will do so, as often as the fluid parts of the human body impinge on the aforesaid surfaces by their own spontaneous motion. Wherefore, although the external bodies, by which the human body has once been affected, be no longer in existence, the mind will nevertheless regard them as present, as often as this action of the body is repeated... | ...Dum corpora externa corporis humani partes fluidas ita determinant ut in molliores spe impingant, earum plana ... mutant, unde fit ...ut inde alio modo reflectantur quam antea solebant et ut etiam postea iisdem novis planis spontaneo suo motu occurrendo eodem modo reflectantur ac cum a corporibus externis versus illa plana impulsae sunt et consequenter ut corpus humanum dum sic reflex moveri pergunt, eodem modo afficiant, de quo mens ... iterum cogitabit hoc est ...mens iterum corpus externum ut praesens contemplabitur et hoc toties quoties corporis humani partes fluid spontaneo suo motu iisdem planis occurrent. Quare quamvis corpora externa a quibus corpus humanum affectum semel fuit, non existant, mens tamen eadem toties ut praesentia contemplabitur quoties haec corporis actio repetetur...

2p17s Videmus itaque non sunt veluti praesentia ... this scholium is called imaginationis definitionem in {5p21} and its context (see the imaginatio- notes page) allows to infer the steps in the process from impact on the human body to imago and then to imagined idea (called imaginatio NOT imago): ... 1. an external body makes an impact on the human body ... 2. the resulting affectiones of the human body are called imagines (elswhere vestigia) ... 3. perceptio by the mind produces ideas in the mind of those affectiones ... 4. the effect of the impact, the imprint, also called -see other quotes of this page- vestigium, remains in the body after the impact: vestigia-imagines are durable ... 5. when the mind recalls the idea of such an imago-vestigium but in association with an inadequate idea of the external body that caused it, the mind is said to imagine. N.B. And imago is part of the human body (corpus humanus) but the verb imaginare denotes a cogitatio-operatio, an operation of the mind (mens) ... Inadequacy of ideas comes about NOT by imagination ITSELF by by the absence of other adequate ideas able to adequately "qualify" the imagined idea (think of seeing something that looks like unicorn and by apt thinking determining what the visual impression is really caused by). Ability to thus imagine a thing in itself is necessarily, and in all cases, positive mind-power, but it weakens or strengthens you depending on whether in addition you have an inadequate or adequate idea that save you from wrong conclusions ...
... to retain the usual phraseology, the modifications [Lat: affectiones] of the human body, of which the ideas represent external bodies as present to us, we will call the images of things, though they do not recall the figure of things. When the mind regards bodies in this fashion, we say that it imagines. I will here draw attention to the fact, in order to indicate where error lies, that the imaginations of the mind, looked at in themselves, do not contain error. The mind does not err in the mere act of imagining, but only in so far as it is regarded as being without the idea, which excludes the existence of such things as it imagines to be present to it. If the mind, while imagining non-existent things as present to it, is at the same time conscious that they do not really exist, this power of imagination must be set down to the efficacy of its nature, and not to a fault, especially if this faculty of imagination depend solely on its own nature-that is (I. Def. vii.), if this faculty of imagination be free. | ... ut verba usitata retineamus, corporis humani affectiones quarum ideae corpora externa velut nobis praesentia repraesentant, rerum imagines vocabimus tametsi rerum figuras non referunt. Et cum mens hac ratione contemplatur corpora, eandem imaginari dicemus. Atque hic ut quid sit error indicare incipiam, notetis velim mentis imaginationes in se spectatas nihil erroris continere sive mentem ex eo quod imaginatur, non errare sed tantum quatenus consideratur carere idea quae existentiam illarum rerum quas sibi praesentes imaginatur, secludat. Nam si mens dum res non existentes ut sibi praesentes imaginatur, simul sciret res illas revera non existere, hanc sane imaginandi potentiam virtuti suae naturae, non vitio tribueret praesertim si haec imaginandi facultas a sola sua natura penderet hoc est (per definitionem 7 partis I) si haec mentis imaginandi facultas libera esset.

2p18s memoria ... memory, a pool of ideas associated accidentally, that is, not ordered and concatenated by ratio, intellect ...
... Memory ... simply a certain association of ideas involving the nature of things outside the human body, which association arises in the mind according to the order and association of the modifications [Lat: affectiones] (affectiones) of the human body ... ... association arises according to the order ... of the modifications [Lat: affectiones] of the human body..distinguish ..from ... order of the intellect ..for instance, from the thought of the word pomum (an apple), a Roman would straightway arrive at the thought of the fruit apple, which has no similitude with the articulate sound in question, nor anything in common with it, except that the body of the man has often been affected by these two things; that is, that the man has often heard the word pomum, while he was looking at the fruit; similarly every man will go on from one thought to another, according as his habit has ordered the images of things in his body. For a soldier, for instance, when he sees the tracks of a horse in sand, will at once pass from the thought of a horse to the thought of a horseman, and thence to the thought of war, &c.; while a countryman will proceed from the thought of a horse to the thought of a plough, a field, &c. Thus every man will follow this or that train of thought, according as he has been in the habit of conjoining and associating the mental images of things ... | ... memoria ... concatenatio idearum naturam rerum quae extra corpus humanum sunt involventium quae in mente fit secundum ordinem et concatenationem affectionum corporis humani. ... concatenationem fieri secundum ordinem ... affectionum corporis humani ... distinguerem ... ordinem intellectus ... exempli gratia ex cogitatione vocis pomi homo romanus statim in cogitationem fructus incidet qui nullam cum articulato illo sono habet similitudinem nec aliquid commune nisi quod ejusdem hominis corpus ab his duobus affectum spe fuit hoc est quod ipse homo spe vocem pomum audivit dum ipsum fructum videret et sic unusquisque ex una in aliam cogitationem incidet prout rerum imagines uniuscujusque consuetudo in corpore ordinavit. Nam miles exempli gratia visis in arena equi vestigiis statim ex cogitatione equi in cogitationem equitis et inde in cogitationem belli etc. incidet. At rusticus ex cogitatione equi in cogitationem aratri, agri etc. incidet et sic unusquisque prout rerum imagines consuevit hoc vel alio modo jungere et concatenare, ...

{2p23 Mens se non cognoscit nisi} ...self-knowledge of the mind comes only from perceiving the affectiones of the body...
...The mind does not know itself, except in so far as it perceives the ideas of the modifications [Lat: affectiones] of the body. | ...Mens se ipsam non cognoscit nisi quatenus corporis affectionum ideas percipit.

{2p24 Mens partium corpus non involvit} ...part of the human body is not part of the essence of the human body... in {2p12} (for the relevant quotes of which see above) and most other loci, "human body" strictly means "essence of human body"...
The parts composing the human body do not belong to the essence of that body, except in so far as they communicate their motions to one another in a certain fixed relation ... not in so far as they can be regarded as individuals without relation to the human body. The parts of the human body are highly complex individuals ...whose parts ...can be separated from the human body without in any way destroying the nature and distinctive quality of the latter, and they can communicate their motions ...to other bodies in another relation... the knowledge of each part composing the human body is in God, in so far as he is affected by very many ideas of things, and not in so far as he has the idea of the human body only... | ...Partes corpus humanum componentes ad essentiam ipsius corporis non pertinent nisi quatenus motus suos certa quadam ratione invicem communicant ...et non quatenus ut individua absque relatione ad humanum corpus considerari possunt. Sunt enim partes humani corporis ...valde composita individua quorum partes ...a corpore humano, servata omnino ejusdem natura et forma, segregari possunt motusque suos ... aliis corporibus alia ratione communicare ...cujuscunque partis corpus humanum componentis cognitio in Deo est quatenus plurimis rerum ideis affectus est et non quatenus corporis humani tantum habet ideam....

{2p26 mens percipit per ideas affectionum} ...the mind can only trace external bodies by perceiving the affectiones (impacts, imprints) resulting from collision of those external bodies with its own body...
...The human mind does not perceive any external body as actually existing, except through the ideas of the modifications [Lat: affectiones] of its own body. | ... Mens humana nullum corpus externum ut actu existens percipit nisi per ideas affectionum sui corporis.

{3p02 Nec corpus mentem determinare potest} ...this quote is puzzling in the context of perceptio which is a cogitatio-operatio...
...Body cannot determine mind to think... | ...Nec corpus mentem ad cogitandum...determinare potest.

{3p11 agendi potentiam mentis cogitandi} ...locally using agendi for the body paired logically with cogitandi for the mind, seems to imply the mind can not act (agere) quod non!... more: notes page about mens...
...Whatsoever increases or diminishes, helps or hinders the power of activity in our body, the idea thereof increases or diminishes, helps or hinders the power of thought in our mind. | ...Quicquid corporis nostri agendi potentiam auget vel [excl non-exh] minuit, juvat vel [non-excl non-exh] coercet, ejusdem rei idea mentis nostrae cogitandi potentiam auget vel [excl non-exh] minuit, juvat vel [excl non-exh] coercet.

{3p19 amatae destrui imaginatur, contristabitur} ...the mind attached to the ideas of some images rather than the ideas of others...
...The mind...endeavours to conceive what increases or help the body's power of activity .... ..the images of things, which postulate the existence of an object of love, help the mind's endeavour to conceive... ...those [images of BH] things, which exclude the existence of an object of love, hinder...affect the mind.. | ...Mens ... ea imaginari conatur quae corporis agendi potentiam augent... ... rerum imagines quae rei existentiam ponunt, mentis conatum quo rem amatam imaginari conatur, juvant ... quae contra rei amatae existentiam secludunt, eundem mentis conatum coercent ... mentem afficiunt...

{3p27 nobis similem simili affectu} ...the images of things are affectiones of the human body...
...The images of things are modifications [Lat: affectiones] of the human body, whereof the ideas represent external bodies as present to us...whereof the ideas involve the nature of our body, and, at the same time, the nature of the external bodies as present... | ...Rerum imagines sunt corporis humani affectiones quarum ideae corpora externa veluti nobis praesentia repraesentant ...quarum ideae naturam nostri corporis et simul praesentem externi corporis naturam involvunt...

{5p01 ordinantur concatenantur mente corpore} ...based on {2p07}, hence when we are actively understanding and thus changing the order and concatenation of ideas in the mind, we thereby change the order and concatenation of the images in our body...recheck
...as thoughts and the ideas of things are arranged and associated in the mind, so are the modifications [Lat: affectiones] of body or the images of things precisely in the same way arranged and associated in the body. | ...Prout cogitationes rerumque [non-excl non-exh] ideae ordinantur et concatenantur in mente, ita corporis affectiones seu [mng-eqv] rerum imagines ad amussimae ordinantur et concatenantur in corpore.

{5p21 Mens potest durante corpore} ... no body no imagination ...
... The mind can only imagine anything, or remember what is past, while the body endures. | ... Mens nihil imaginari potest neque rerum praeteritarum recordari nisi durante corpore.

Equivalence claims involving corpus humanus
{2p12} | 1. Whatsoever comes to pass in the object of the idea, which constitutes the human mind, must be perceived by the human mind, or there will necessarily be an idea in the human mind of the said occurrence. 2. if the object of the idea constituting the human mind be a body, nothing can take place in that body without being perceived by the mind. | 1. uicquid in objecto ideae humanam mentem constituentis contingit, id ab humana mente debet percipi sive [mng eqv] ejus rei dabitur in mente necessario idea 2. si objectum ideae humanam mentem constituentis sit corpus, nihil in eo corpore poterit contingere quod a mente non percipiatur.
{2p19} | [About the human body] 1. in so far as he is regarded as affected by another idea of a particular thing actually existing 2. inasmuch as the human body stands in need of very many bodies | [De corpori humane] 1. quatenus alia rei singularis idea affectus consideratur 2. quatenus plurimis corporibus indiget
{2p19} | [About God = natura-sense 2 = substance and the human mind] 1. God has the idea of the human body 2. [God = natura-sense 2 = substance] knows the human body, in so far as he is affected by very many other ideas, and not in so far as he constitutes the nature of the human mind | [De deo et menti humane] 1. [Deus] ideam corporis humani habet 2. [Deus] corpus humanum cognoscit quatenus plurimis aliis ideis affectus est et non quatenus naturam humanae mentis co constituit
{2p25} | 1. an adequate knowledge of the external body is not in God, in so far as he has the idea of the modification [Lat: affectiones] of the human body 2. the idea of the modification [Lat: affectiones] of the human body does not involve an adequate knowledge of the external body. | 1. corporis externi adaequata cognitio in Deo non est quatenus ideam affectionis humani corporis habet 2. idea affectionis corporis humani adaequatam corporis externi cognitionem non involvit.
{2p29} | [About the ideas of affections of the human body] 1. do not involve an adequate knowledge of the said body 2. does not adequately express its nature 3. they do not adequately agree with the nature of the mind 4. the ideas of such ideas do not adequately express the nature of the human mind 5. [the ideas of such ideas] do not involve an adequate knowledge thereof. | [De ideis affectionis corporis humani] 1. adaequatam ipsius corporis cognitionem non involvit 2. ejus naturam adaequate non exprimit 3. cum natura mentis non convenit adaequate 4. hujus ideae ideam adaequate humanae mentis naturam non exprimit 5. adaequatam ejus cognitionem non involvit.
{3d03} [notes] | [About the human body] 1. [corporeal BH] emotion 2. the affections of the body, whereby the active power of the said body is increased or diminished, aided or constrained | [De corpori humani] 1. affectum [affectus-corpus] 2. corporis affectiones quibus ipsius corporis agendi potentia augetur vel [excl non-exh] minuitur, juvatur vel [excl non-exh] coercetur
{3d03} [notes] | [About the human mind] 1. [mental BH] emotion 2. the ideas of the affections of the body, whereby the active power of the said body is increased or diminished, aided or constrained | [De menti humani] 1. affectum [affectus-mens] 2. ideas corporis affection[um] quibus ipsius corporis agendi potentia augetur vel [excl non-exh] minuitur, juvatur vel [excl non-exh] coercetur
{3post02} | [In the human body] 1. impressions 2. traces | [In corpore humane] 1. impressiones 2. vestigia
{3p18} | [About the body] 1. constitution 2. emotion | [De corpori humani] 1. constitutio 2. affectus
{3p28} | [About the human body] 1. endeavour 2. power to act | [De corpori humani] 1. conatu 2. potentia in agendo
{3p56} | 1. imagine 2. be affected by an emotion, which involves the nature of our own body, and the nature of an external body. | 1. imaginamur 2. afficimur affectu qui naturam nostri corporis et naturam corporis externi involvit.
{3de48} | 1. Lust 2. desire and love in the matter of sexual intercourse. | 1. Libido 2. etiam cupiditas et amor in commiscendis corporibus.
{5p01} | 1. affections of the body 2. the images of things | 1. corporis affectiones 2. rerum imagines