| Meaning | Images (imagines) are affections of the human body (in the attribute of extension). But imaginatio is a thinking-operation, that is in the mind (attribute of thought). The idea produced by that operation is also called an imaginatio. Hence imaginatio is dealt with on another page. Compare: when a drawing has been printed, the imago is NOT the idea conceived by your mind when you look at the paper, but the pattern of dents and ink (vestigia) that the printing has left on the paper: an extended thing, not thought. Similarly, when not paper but your own body is affected, the "print" (vestigium) left in the body is the imago. The perceived idea of that print is what the mind belonging to that body "makes" of the extended thing that caused it. When you have been confused [how?], that imaginatio has led to an inadequate idea. Pure imaginare (unaided by other adequate ideas) can, by a stroke of luck, lead to true ideas, but the mind perceiving the body's affections in that manner has acquired no adequate knowledge of the extended things the impacts of which on the body caused the images.pp3post02 |
| Mantras [what is] | rei imago (rerum imagines) |
| Related concepts | Vestigium, imaginare, imaginatio, percipere, sentire |
| Occurrence | [geomap] |
| Not linked | Imaginare, imaginatio is not in the body but in the mind |
| {2p17c quamvis non existant nec praesentia} ...Ethica's corpuscular sensory protoneurology: ... an imago or vestigium is a change in the surface of the softer parts of the body (N.B. imagines are NOT imaginationes which are formed in the mind (mens))... | |
| ...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 allows in association with other quotes below to infer the steps in the process from impact to imago and then to imagined idea (the latter is 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 but 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 ... | ....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 ... |
| {3p16 imaginamur simile} ...written in full: first the body is affected by an external body, that is: the body acquires a corporeal image ("print", vestigium, "scar"). Then the mind, by the passive (!) operation of perceptio is affected by the image and acquires (NOT again an image but:) an idea or imaginatio... | |
| ...when the mind is affected by the image thereof... | ...cum mens ejus imagine afficietur... |
| {3p19 amatae destrui imaginatur, contristabitur} ...the mind is 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 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 but the ideas (imaginationes) produced by the perception of those images are about what may have caused those images to be created... | |
| ...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... |
| {4p09c futurae vel praeterit debilior praesentis} ...the body is most affected by impacts of things present... | |
| ...The image of something past or future, that is, of a thing which we regard as in relation to time past or time future, to the exclusion of time present, is, when other conditions are equal, weaker than the image of something present... | ...{4p09}: Imago rei futurae vel [excl non-exh] praeterit hoc est rei quam cum relatione ad tempus futurum vel [excl non-exh] praeteritum secluso praesenti contemplamur, caeteris paribus debilior est imagine rei praesentis... |
| {5p01 ordinantur concatenantur mente corpore} ...based on {2p07} ... it is puzzling that when we change our mind by actively understanding and thus change the order and concatenation of ideas in the mind, our body cannot have stayed behind in that change ... | |
| ...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. |
| {5p11 plures res mentem magis occupat} ...one "scar", "imprint", vestigium on the body can be associated with more than one thing... | |
| In proportion as an image is referred to more objects, so is it more frequent, or more often vivid, and occupies the mind more. | PROPOSITIO XI: Quo imago aliqua ad plures res refertur, eo frequentior est seu [non-excl non-exh] spius viget et mentem magis occupat. |
| {5p12 imagines imaginibus clare junguntur} ...in the process of reordering and reconcatenating our mind's ideas, things already adequately understood attract ideas of other things more than they attract confused ideas... | |
| ...The images of things are more easily associated with the images referred to things which we clearly and distinctly understand, than with others. | PROPOSITIO XII: Rerum imagines facilius imaginibus quae ad res referuntur quas clare et distincte intelligimus, junguntur quam aliis. |
| {5p13 imago pluribus aliis spius viget} ...in the process of reordering and reconcatenating our mind's ideas, "hub"-ideas are the most vigorous ones... | |
| ... An image is more often vivid, in proportion as it is associated with a greater number of other images. | ... Quo imago aliqua pluribus aliis juncta est, eo spius viget. |
| {5p14 Mens potest rerum imagines Dei ideam referantur} ...if your mind would refer all affectiones of your body to the idea of God = natura-sense 2 = substance all your ideas would be adequate... | |
| ...The mind can bring it about, that all bodily modifications [Lat: affectiones] or images of things may be referred to the idea of God. | ...Mens efficere potest ut omnes corporis affectiones seu [mng-eqv] rerum imagines ad Dei ideam referantur. |
| Equivalence claims involving imago, imagines NOT imaginare imaginatio | ||
| {5p01} | 1. affections of the body 2. the images of things | 1. corporis affectiones 2. rerum imagines |