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Single Idea 17211

[filed under theme 11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 2. Understanding ]

Full Idea

All efforts which we make through reason are nothing but efforts to understand, and the mind, in so far as it uses reason, adjudges nothing as profitable to itself excepting that which conduces to understanding.

Gist of Idea

Understanding is the sole aim of reason, and the only profit for the mind

Source

Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], IV Pr 26)

Book Ref

Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics', ed/tr. White,WH/Stirling,AH [Wordsworth 2001], p.181

A Reaction

I wish philosophers would agree that the aim of their subject is to achieve broad and general understanding of reality - and nothing else. If you want to change the world, that isn't philosophy. If you think understanding is impossible, drop philosophy.

Related Idea

Idea 17212 To understand is the absolute virtue of the mind [Spinoza]

The 43 ideas with the same theme [knowledge of sources, causes and explanations]:

16126 Expertise is knowledge of the whole by means of the parts [Plato]
22513 Knowing is having knowledge; understanding is using knowledge [Aristotle]
22587 Understanding is the aim of our nature [Aristotle]
12364 We understand a thing when we know its explanation and its necessity [Aristotle]
12366 We only understand something when we know its explanation [Aristotle]
12370 Some understanding, of immediate items, is indemonstrable [Aristotle]
23308 Reasoning relates to understanding as time does to eternity [Boethius, by Sorabji]
22170 Senses grasp external properties, but the understanding grasps the essential natures of things [Aquinas]
17211 Understanding is the sole aim of reason, and the only profit for the mind [Spinoza]
12960 We understand things when they are distinct, and we can derive necessities from them [Leibniz]
12998 Understanding grasps the agreements and disagreements of ideas [Leibniz]
19332 For Leibniz, divine understanding grasps every conceivable possibility [Leibniz, by Perkins]
15627 Kant showed that the understanding (unlike reason) concerns what is finite and conditioned [Kant, by Hegel]
16898 Understanding essentially involves singular elements [Kant, by Burge]
5573 Reason is distinct from understanding, and is the faculty of rules or principles [Kant]
4190 All understanding is an immediate apprehension of the causal relation [Schopenhauer]
19089 Our whole conception of an object is its possible practical consequences [Peirce]
24150 We can only understand through concepts, which subsume particulars in generalities [Nietzsche]
17623 To understand a thought you must understand its logical structure [Frege, by Burge]
16885 To understand a thought, understand its inferential connections to other thoughts [Frege, by Burge]
15578 Propositions don't provide understanding, because the understanding must come first [Heidegger, by Polt]
18712 Understanding is translation, into action or into other symbols [Wittgenstein]
13047 It is knowing 'why' that gives scientific understanding, not knowing 'that' [Salmon]
13065 Understanding is an extremely vague concept [Salmon]
17944 'Episteme' is better translated as 'understanding' than as 'knowledge' [Nehamas]
16814 Understanding is not mysterious - it is just more knowledge, of causes [Lipton]
9325 In contrast with knowledge, the notion of understanding emphasizes practical engagement [Gulick]
20188 Modern epistemology is too atomistic, and neglects understanding [Zagzebski]
20223 Epistemology is excessively atomic, by focusing on justification instead of understanding [Zagzebski]
18810 Aristotle's proofs give understanding, so it can't be otherwise, so consequence is necessary [Smiley, by Rumfitt]
16562 We understand something by presenting its low-level entities and activities [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
15707 There is intentional, mechanical, teleological, essentialist, vitalist and deontological understanding [Gelman]
19542 It is nonsense that understanding does not involve knowledge; to understand, you must know [Dougherty/Rysiew]
19543 To grasp understanding, we should be more explicit about what needs to be known [Dougherty/Rysiew]
19261 Understanding is seeing coherent relationships in the relevant information [Kvanvig]
14365 Scientific understanding is always the grasping of a correct explanation [Strevens]
14368 We may 'understand that' the cat is on the mat, but not at all 'understand why' it is there [Strevens]
14369 Understanding is a precondition, comes in degrees, is active, and holistic - unlike explanation [Strevens]
19690 'Grasping' a structure seems to be modal, because we must anticipate its behaviour [Grimm]
19692 You may have 'weak' understanding, if by luck you can answer a set of 'why questions' [Grimm]
19691 Unlike knowledge, you can achieve understanding through luck [Grimm]
18831 Medieval logicians said understanding A also involved understanding not-A [Rumfitt]
19265 Can you possess objective understanding without realising it? [Vaidya]