【英文原著类】EthicsIV(伦理学(四)).pdf

THE ETHICS
THE ETHICS
PART IV: Of Human Bondage, or the Strength of
the Emotions
Benedict de Spinoza
Translated by R. H. M. Elwes

1
THE ETHICS
PREFACE
Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name
bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own
master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often
compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which
is worse. Why this is so, and what is good or evil in the emotions, I
propose to show in this part of my treatise. But, before I begin, it would be
well to make a few prefatory observations on perfection and imperfection,
good and evil.
When a man has purposed to make a given thing, and has brought it to
perfection, his work will be pronounced perfect, not only by himself, but
by everyone who rightly knows, or thinks that he knows, the intention and
aim of its author. For instance, suppose anyone sees a work (which I
assume to be not pleted), and knows that the aim of the author of
that work is to build a house, he will call the work imperfect; he will, on
the other hand, call it perfect, as soon as he sees that it is carried through
to the end, which its author had purposed for it. But if a man sees a work,
the like whereof he has never seen before, and if he knows not the
intention of the artificer, he plainly cannot know, whether that work be
perfect or imperfect. Such seems to be the primary meaning of these
terms.
But, after men began to form general ideas, to think out types of
houses, buildings, towers, &c., and to prefer certain types to others, it
came about, that each man called perfect that which he saw agree with the
general idea he had formed of the thing in question, and called imperfect
that which he saw agree less with his own preconceived type, even though
it had evidently pleted in accordance with the idea of its artificer.
This seems to be the only reason for calling natural phen