Illusions of Imagination as an Analogy for the Influence of Passive Affects on Actions and Reasoning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15291/ai.4848Keywords:
affects, imagination, ideas, B. Spinoza, knowledge, judgmentAbstract
The aim of this research is to analyse Spinoza’s original philosophical reflection on the ideas of the imagination and on the process of their formation in analogy with the ideas of affective states of the body, that is, in analogy with affects. The article examines the philosophical ideas of Baruch Spinoza with a focus on the special capacity of imagination and illusions that can arise from this cognitive capacity, thereby pointing in an analogous way to the correlation of passive affects, judgments and actions. The results of the analysis and comparison of the influence of illusions created by the imagination and the influence of passive affects on cognition, reasoning and action indicate their similar characteristics. Despite the appearance of inadequate and illusory imaginative ideas in experience – which, according to Spinoza, are impossible to remove – the cognition and awareness of their inadequacy and uncertainty strongly influence our judgment and inference and thereby weaken their influence. Similarly, in understanding passive or negative affects as indicators of a change in the state of the affected body and the ideas of such changes, we recognize these very often intense affects as inappropriate factors to guide us in judgment and action.
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