THE POTENCY OF IMAGINATION IN SPINOZA'S PHILOSOPHY:
FROM ERROR TO HUMAN LIBERATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v17i3.80148Keywords:
Spinoza, Imagination, Potency, Affects, FreedomAbstract
The article presents an interpretation of imagination in Spinoza that problematizes the traditional reading of imagination as a mere source of error, confusion, and servitude. It is acknowledged that such a perspective is grounded in the Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione (TIE) and the Ethics, in which the first kind of knowledge is viewed as vague, inadequate perception shaped by external causes. However, the investigation demonstrates that images, in themselves, do not contain falsity; error stems solely from the privation of adequate knowledge. By associating imagination with the conatus and the affects in parts III and V of the Ethics, its power becomes evident. When the mind gains consciousness of the act of imagining and employs rational precepts to reorganize affections and memories, the imagination ceases to be a hindrance and collaborates in the process of human liberation. Imagination is not eliminated by reason, but reconfigured by it, constituting a practical and fundamental instrument for increasing the power to act and achieving freedom.
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