Part III — On the Method of Seeing
DEFINITIONS
I. By philosophy I understand the art of seeing clearly.
II. By clear seeing I understand seeing what is — undistorted by hope, fear, crowd, or shiny thing.
III. By picture I understand an image which causes the mind to change shape, rather than to memorise a sentence.
IV. By freedom I understand the understanding of what moves one. (Spinoza, Ethics IV.)
V. By the eternal aspect I understand the structure beneath time — the shape that keeps returning. (Spinoza calls this seeing things under the aspect of eternity, Ethics V.)
VI. By trained mind I understand a mind in which clear seeing has become a stable law. (Spinoza calls such a mind a "spiritual automaton" in the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect §85.)
VII. Four kinds of knowing: hearing, experience, reasoning, direct seeing.
AXIOMS
I. Once the mind has seen, it cannot stop seeing.
II. One true idea is a tool by which the mind makes other true ideas.
III. Different false things must be distinguished, not piled.
IV. The deeper one understands a thing, the less easily one makes nonsense about it.
V. The mind often takes its own shape and projects it onto the world.
PROPOSITIONS
Prop. I. To see clearly is to see what moves one. Proof. By Definition II and Definition IV. Q.E.D.
Prop. II. Freedom is not the doing of any wish; freedom is the understanding of the wish. Proof. By Definition IV. A wish whose cause is not known governs the wisher without consent. To know the cause is to enter the cause and to act from it. Q.E.D.
Scholium (the stone). Imagine a stone flying through the air. Someone threw it. Now imagine the stone can think. It will say: "I am flying because I want to fly." People often know what they want, but not what caused the wanting. Then they think wanting is freedom. Freedom begins where the throwing becomes visible. (Spinoza to Schuller, Letter 58.)
Prop. III. The shape of one's own mind is not the shape of the world. Proof. By Axiom V. Q.E.D.
Scholium (the speaking triangle). Imagine a triangle that can speak. It might say: God must be triangular. A circle might say: God must be circular. People do this too. When I say "everyone must like what I like," I am a very small triangle with a very loud voice. (Spinoza to Boxel, Letter 56.)
Prop. IV. The small event is not the structure. Proof. A mind that sees only the bump cannot understand the body to which the bump belongs. By Axiom I and Axiom IV, what is not seen as part of a body cannot be understood. Q.E.D.
Scholium (the worm in the blood). Imagine a tiny worm living in blood. It sees little particles bumping into other particles, and thinks each bump is a whole story. But the worm lives inside a body. We are often the worm. We mistake the small event for the whole order. (Spinoza to Oldenburg, Letter 32.)
Prop. V. Number is not the only tool for what is infinite. Proof. Take two circles whose centres do not coincide. The curved space between them changes its distance in ways no enumeration can count one by one. Therefore some infinities are not very large numbers, but the wrong shape for number altogether. (Spinoza, Letter 12 on the Infinite.) Q.E.D.
Scholium (the eccentric circles). Like trying to catch water with a fork. Number is a beautiful tool for what can be counted. Some things are not made for counting.
Prop. VI. "Missing" is sometimes a comparison the mind makes, not a fact about the thing. Proof. We say a blind man is missing sight. We do not say a stone is missing sight. Sight does not belong to being a stone. Therefore "missing" depends on the comparison-class, not on the thing. (Ethics II, Proposition 49, Scholium.) Q.E.D.
Scholium (the blind person). If I cannot do something yet, I should not always say I am broken. First see what is truly there. Then grow from truth, not from shame.
Prop. VII. The deeper the understanding, the harder the nonsense. Proof. By Axiom IV. Q.E.D.
Corollary. If you know cats, you cannot easily say cats are tiny elephants.
Prop. VIII. A trained mind does not begin from zero every time. Proof. By Definition VI. A doctor sees danger quickly. A musician hears a wrong note quickly. The seeing has entered the body and become law. Q.E.D.
Prop. IX. The eternal is not far away in the sky. The eternal is the structure beneath time. Proof. By Definition V. The surface saying is I cried today. The deeper saying is when I feel unseen, sadness rises. The first is in time; the second is the shape that keeps returning. (Ethics V.) Q.E.D.
Prop. X. Sight, or, Method. Proof. The method is not a set of rules. The method is a way of seeing such that the mind changes shape. By Proposition VIII, the change is stable; therefore method, having entered the body, becomes the body's law. Q.E.D.
Corollary. Once you see the worm, you cannot forget it.
Final Scholium.
Daughter: Then what is the whole lesson?
Mother: The whole lesson is three things.
See what moves you. See what is truly there. See the whole, not only the little piece.
Daughter: And if I forget?
Mother: Remember the worm, the stone, the triangle, the circles, the blind person.
Daughter: They are doors.
Mother: Yes.
Daughter: And philosophy says?
Mother: Look.
Daughter: Like this.
Mother: Like this.