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Ethics, Axioms II summary

Axioms II of 17 · Part 2: On the Nature and Origin of the Mind · 1 min to read the chapter

In Axioms II, human existence is presented as unnecessary, while thinking is affirmed as a human activity and ideas are made necessary for love, desire, and other passions. The axioms also state that we perceive a body undergoing various changes and perceive particular things only as bodies or forms of thought.

What happens

  1. A person's essence does not require that person to exist in nature.
  2. A human being thinks.
  3. Love, desire, and other passions require an idea of their object, but an idea can occur without another form of thought.
  4. We perceive a body as affected in various ways.
  5. Our feeling and perception of particular things extend only to bodies and forms of thought.

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