Benedict de Spinoza, THE ETHICS
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knowledge of itself. Q.E.D.

XXIV. The human mind does not involve an adequate knowledge of
the parts composing the human body.

>>>>>Proof--The parts composing the human body do not belong to
the essence of that body, except in so far as they communicate
their motions to one another in a certain fixed relation (Def.
after Lemma iii.), not in so far as they can be regarded as
individuals without relation to the human body. The parts of
the human body are highly complex individuals (Post. i.), whose
parts (Lemma iv.) can be separated from the human body without in
any way destroying the nature and distinctive quality of the
latter, and they can communicate their motions (Ax. i., after
Lemma iii.) to other bodies in another relation; therefore (II.
iii.) the idea or knowledge of each part will be in God,
inasmuch (II. ix.) as he is regarded as affected by another idea
of a particular thing, which particular thing is prior in the
order of nature to the aforesaid part (II. vii.). We may affirm
the same thing of each part of each individual composing the
human body; therefore, the knowledge of each part composing the
human body is in God, in so far as he is affected by very many
ideas of things, and not in so far as he has the idea of the
human body only, in other words, the idea which constitutes the
nature of the human mind (II. xiii.); therefore (II. xi. Cor.),
the human mind does not involve an adequate knowledge of the
human body. Q.E.D.

XXV. The idea of each modification of the human body does not
involve an adequate knowledge of the external body.

>>>>>Proof--We have shown that the idea of a modification of the
human body involves the nature of an external body, in so far as
that external body conditions the human body in a given manner.
But, in so far as the external body is an individual, which has
no reference to the human body, the knowledge or idea thereof is
in God (II. ix.), in so far as God is regarded as affected by
the idea of a further thing, which (II. vii.) is naturally prior
to the said external body. Wherefore an adequate knowledge of
the external body is not in God, in so far as he has the idea of