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Single Idea 17223

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / f. Compassion ]

Full Idea

Pity, like shame, although it is not a virtue, is nevertheless good, in so far as it shows that a desire of living uprightly is present in the man who is possessed with shame.

Gist of Idea

Pity is not a virtue, but at least it shows a desire to live uprightly

Source

Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], IV Pr 58)

Book Ref

Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics', ed/tr. White,WH/Stirling,AH [Wordsworth 2001], p.205

A Reaction

And yet, in so far as I am rational, it seems that I should endeavour to suppress pity and replace it with right reason. Does Spinoza feel loyalty to the human race, I wonder?

Related Ideas

Idea 17218 People who live according to reason should avoid pity [Spinoza]

Idea 17219 A person unmoved by either reason or pity to help others is rightly called 'inhuman' [Spinoza]

The 177 ideas from 'The Ethics'

8018 Spinoza's life shows that love of truth which he proclaims as the highest value [MacIntyre on Spinoza]
5641 For Spinoza, 'adequacy' is the intrinsic mark of truth [Spinoza, by Scruton]
5639 Spinoza implies that thought is impossible without the notion of substance [Spinoza, by Scruton]
7833 Spinoza names self-interest as the sole source of value [Spinoza, by Stewart,M]
4299 Contingency is an illusion, resulting from our inadequate understanding [Spinoza, by Cottingham]
5640 Spinoza's three levels of knowledge are perception/imagination, then principles, then intuitions [Spinoza, by Scruton]
5638 'I think' is useless, because it is contingent, and limited to the first person [Spinoza, by Scruton]
21807 Ideas are powerful entities, which can produce further ideas [Spinoza, by Schmid]
4312 To understand a phenomenon, we must understand why it is necessary, not merely contingent [Spinoza, by Cottingham]
7571 Spinoza's God is not a person [Spinoza, by Jolley]
4311 We think we are free because we don't know the causes of our desires and choices [Spinoza]
4308 Mind and body are one thing, seen sometimes as thought and sometimes as extension [Spinoza]
23951 Emotion is a modification of bodily energy, controlling our actions [Spinoza]
7832 Stoics want to suppress emotions, but Spinoza overcomes them with higher emotions [Spinoza, by Stewart,M]
4309 Spinoza argues that in reality the will and the intellect are 'one and the same' [Spinoza, by Cottingham]
8019 Along with his pantheism, Spinoza equates ethics with the study of human nature [Spinoza, by MacIntyre]
8020 Only self-knowledge can liberate us [Spinoza, by MacIntyre]
7412 Spinoza extended Hobbes's natural rights to cover all possible desires and actions [Spinoza, by Tuck]
1587 Spinoza strongly attacked teleology, which is the lifeblood of classical logos [Roochnik on Spinoza]
1588 For Spinoza eyes don't act for purposes, but follow mechanical necessity [Roochnik on Spinoza]
4314 God is wholly without passions, and strictly speaking does not love anyone [Spinoza, by Cottingham]
12928 Spinoza's God is just power and necessity, without perfection or wisdom [Leibniz on Spinoza]
7835 The key question for Spinoza is: is his God really a God? [Stewart,M on Spinoza]
7609 God is the sum and principle of all eternal laws [Spinoza, by Armstrong,K]
7836 In Spinoza, one could substitute 'nature' or 'substance' for the word 'God' throughout [Spinoza, by Stewart,M]
7831 Spinoza's theory of mind implies that there is no immortality [Spinoza, by Stewart,M]
12757 That God is the substance of all things is an ill-reputed doctrine [Leibniz on Spinoza]
4815 From a definite cause an effect necessarily follows [Spinoza]
4816 A true idea must correspond with its ideate or object [Spinoza]
4817 If a thing can be conceived as non-existing, its essence does not involve existence [Spinoza]
17169 Some things makes me conceive of it as a thing whose essence requires its existence [Spinoza]
4813 Substance is that of which an independent conception can be formed [Spinoza]
17170 An 'attribute' is what the intellect takes as constituting an essence [Spinoza]
17171 A 'mode' is an aspect of a substance, and conceived through that substance [Spinoza]
21856 Spinoza says a substance of infinite attributes cannot fail to exist [Spinoza, by Lord]
17172 God is a substance with infinite attributes [Spinoza]
4814 A thing is free if it acts by necessity of its own nature, and the act is determined by itself alone [Spinoza]
17173 Two substances can't be the same if they have different attributes [Spinoza]
17174 Outside the mind, there are just things and their properties [Spinoza]
17175 There cannot be two substances with the same attributes [Spinoza]
21857 Substance is the power of self-actualisation [Spinoza, by Lord]
4819 There is necessarily for each existent thing a cause why it should exist [Spinoza]
4818 People who are ignorant of true causes imagine anything can change into anything else [Spinoza]
17176 The more reality a thing has, the more attributes it has [Spinoza]
17177 In nature there is just one infinite substance [Spinoza]
17178 Denial of God is denial that his essence involves existence, which is absurd [Spinoza]
21858 God is being as such, and you cannot conceive of the non-existence of being [Spinoza, by Lord]
4820 God must necessarily exist, because no reason can be given for his non-existence [Spinoza]
17179 There must always be a reason or cause why some triangle does or does not exist [Spinoza]
17180 Everything is in God, and nothing exists or is thinkable without God [Spinoza]
4821 An infinite line can be marked in feet or inches, so one infinity is twelve times the other [Spinoza]
17181 God is the efficient cause of essences, as well as of existences [Spinoza]
4822 Divine nature makes all existence and operations necessary, and nothing is contingent [Spinoza]
4823 God does not act according to the freedom of the will [Spinoza]
21802 An act of will can only occur if it has been caused, which implies a regress of causes [Spinoza]
7828 The actual world is the only one God could have created [Spinoza]
17182 Necessity is in reference to essence or to cause [Spinoza]
17183 Things are impossible if they imply contradiction, or their production lacks an external cause [Spinoza]
4824 We only call things 'contingent' in relation to the imperfection of our knowledge [Spinoza]
4825 To say that God promotes what is good is false, as it sets up a goal beyond God [Spinoza]
17184 All natures of things produce some effect [Spinoza]
17186 Men say they prefer order, not realising that we imagine the order [Spinoza]
17185 Mathematics deals with the essences and properties of forms [Spinoza]
4827 Priests reject as heretics anyone who tries to understand miracles in a natural way [Spinoza]
12731 Final causes are figments of human imagination [Spinoza]
4826 Nature has no particular goal in view, and final causes are mere human figments [Spinoza]
21859 God has no purpose, because God lacks nothing [Spinoza]
17187 Essence gives existence and conception to things, and is inseparable from them [Spinoza]
4830 An 'idea' is a mental conception which is actively formed by the mind in thinking [Spinoza]
17188 A thing is unified if its parts produce a single effect [Spinoza]
17190 We can easily think of nature as one individual [Spinoza]
21860 Ideas and things have identical connections and order [Spinoza]
17189 The essence of man is modifications of the nature of God [Spinoza]
4828 The essence of a thing is what is required for it to exist or be conceived [Spinoza]
4829 The human mind is part of the infinite intellect of God [Spinoza]
21805 Spinoza held that the mind is just a bundle of ideas [Spinoza, by Schmid]
4831 If the body is affected by an external object, the mind can't help believing that the object exists [Spinoza]
20310 Error does not result from imagining, but from lacking the evidence of impossibility [Spinoza]
4832 If the body is affected by two things together, the imagining of one will conjure up the other [Spinoza]
4833 The human mind is the very idea or knowledge of the human body [Spinoza]
4835 Anyone who knows, must know that they know, and even know that they know that they know.. [Spinoza]
4834 Mind and body are the same thing, sometimes seen as thought, and sometimes as extension [Spinoza]
21861 Self-knowledge needs perception of the affections of the body [Spinoza]
4836 The mind only knows itself by means of ideas of the modification of the body [Spinoza]
20308 Encounters with things confuse the mind, and internal comparisons bring clarity [Spinoza]
4837 'Free will' is a misunderstanding arising from awareness of our actions, but ignorance of their causes [Spinoza]
4838 Claiming that actions depend on the will is meaningless; no one knows what the will is [Spinoza]
17191 Nothing is essential if it is in every part, and is common to everything [Spinoza]
17192 The 'universal' term 'man' is just imagining whatever is the same in a multitude of men [Spinoza]
20309 If our ideas are adequate, what follows from them is also adequate [Spinoza]
17193 True ideas intrinsically involve the highest degree of certainty [Spinoza]
21863 You only know you are certain of something when you actually are certain of it [Spinoza]
21864 Truth is its own standard [Spinoza]
17194 Reason only explains what is universal, so it is timeless, under a certain form of eternity [Spinoza]
4840 Reason perceives things under a certain form of eternity [Spinoza]
4839 Reason naturally regards things as necessary, and only imagination considers them contingent [Spinoza]
17195 Things persevere through a force which derives from God [Spinoza]
4841 People make calculation mistakes by misjudging the figures, not calculating them wrongly [Spinoza]
17196 The will is not a desire, but the faculty of affirming what is true or false [Spinoza]
4842 Ideas are not images formed in the brain, but are the conceptions of thought [Spinoza]
21804 Faculties are either fictions, or the abstract universals of ideas [Spinoza]
17198 Will and intellect are the same thing [Spinoza]
17201 The will is finite, but the intellect is infinite [Spinoza]
4843 Would we die if we lacked free will, and were poised between equal foods? Yes! [Spinoza]
17197 The idea of a triangle involves truths about it, so those are part of its essence [Spinoza]
17200 We must be careful to keep words distinct from ideas and images [Spinoza]
17199 A man who assents without doubt to a falsehood is not certain, but lacks a cause to make him waver [Spinoza]
20311 An idea involves affirmation or negation [Spinoza]
21801 Unlike Descartes' atomism, Spinoza held a holistic view of belief [Spinoza, by Schmid]
20127 Laws of nature are universal, so everything must be understood through those laws [Spinoza]
17202 We are the source of an action if only our nature can explain the action [Spinoza]
20305 Whenever we act, then desire is our very essence [Spinoza]
21865 We act when it follows from our nature, and is understood in that way [Spinoza]
23990 The three primary emotions are pleasure, pain, and desire [Spinoza, by Goldie]
17203 Minds are subject to passions if they have inadequate ideas [Spinoza]
4844 The mind is not free to remember or forget anything [Spinoza]
17204 Animals are often observed to be wiser than people [Spinoza]
17205 Only an external cause can destroy something [Spinoza]
20307 As far as possible, everything tries to persevere [Spinoza]
17206 The essence of a thing is its effort to persevere [Spinoza]
4845 We don't want things because they are good; we judge things to be good because we want them [Spinoza]
21803 The conatus (striving) of mind and body together is appetite, which is the essence of man [Spinoza]
4846 We are incapable of formulating an idea which excludes the existence of our body [Spinoza]
4847 Pleasure is a passive state in which the mind increases in perfection [Spinoza]
4848 Love is nothing else but pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause [Spinoza]
21868 We love or hate people more strongly because we think they are free [Spinoza]
20306 Once we have experienced two feelings together, one will always give rise to the other [Spinoza]
4849 The three primary emotions are pleasure, pain and desire [Spinoza]
21870 Music is good for a melancholic, bad for a mourner, and indifferent to the deaf [Spinoza]
17207 By 'good' I mean what brings us ever closer to our model of human nature [Spinoza]
17208 A horse would be destroyed if it were changed into a man or an insect [Spinoza]
4850 A final cause is simply a human desire [Spinoza]
17209 A thing is contingent if nothing in its essence determines whether or not it exists [Spinoza]
21869 Our own force of persevering is nothing in comparison with external forces [Spinoza]
4853 Rational people are self-interested, but also desire the same goods for other people [Spinoza]
4851 Reason demands nothing contrary to nature, and so it demands self-love [Spinoza]
4852 Both virtue and happiness are based on the preservation of one's own being [Spinoza]
21874 The ideal for human preservation is unanimity among people [Spinoza]
4854 It is impossible that the necessity of a person's nature should produce a desire for non-existence [Spinoza]
21871 The more we strive for our own advantage, the more virtuous we are [Spinoza]
17210 All virtue is founded on self-preservation [Spinoza]
21872 We seek our own advantage, and virtue is doing this rationally [Spinoza]
17211 Understanding is the sole aim of reason, and the only profit for the mind [Spinoza]
17212 To understand is the absolute virtue of the mind [Spinoza]
19435 God is not loveable for producing without choice and by necessity; God is loveable for his goodness [Leibniz on Spinoza]
21873 Men only agree in nature if they are guided by reason [Spinoza]
4855 If people are obedient to reason, they will live in harmony [Spinoza]
4856 To live according to reason is to live according to the laws of human nature [Spinoza]
17213 In so far as men live according to reason, they will agree with one another [Spinoza]
17214 To act virtuously is to act rationally [Spinoza]
17215 Animals feel, but that doesn't mean we can't use them for our pleasure and profit [Spinoza]
17216 The poet who forgot his own tragedies was no longer the same man [Spinoza]
17217 Love is joy with an external cause [Spinoza]
17219 A person unmoved by either reason or pity to help others is rightly called 'inhuman' [Spinoza]
4857 Pity is a bad and useless thing, as it is a pain, and rational people perform good deeds without it [Spinoza]
17218 People who live according to reason should avoid pity [Spinoza]
4858 A rational person will want others to have the goods he seeks for himself [Spinoza]
17220 Self-satisfaction is the highest thing for which we can hope [Spinoza]
17221 A man ignorant of himself is ignorant of all of the virtues [Spinoza]
17222 The sum of its angles follows from a triangle's nature [Spinoza]
17223 Pity is not a virtue, but at least it shows a desire to live uprightly [Spinoza]
4859 Pleasure is only bad in so far as it hinders a man's capability for action [Spinoza]
17224 If our ideas were wholly adequate, we would have no concept of evil [Spinoza]
21875 The wisdom of a free man is a meditation on life, not on death [Spinoza]
17225 In a free man, choosing flight can show as much strength of mind as fighting [Spinoza]
4860 Man's highest happiness consists of perfecting his understanding, or reason [Spinoza]
17226 The best use of talent is to teach other people to live rationally [Spinoza]
17227 Slavery is a disgraceful crime [Spinoza]
17228 Rational people judge money by needs, and live contented with very little [Spinoza]
4863 An emotion comes more under our control in proportion to how well it is known to us [Spinoza]
17229 If infancy in humans was very rare, we would consider it a pitiful natural defect [Spinoza]
4864 An emotion is only bad if it hinders us from thinking [Spinoza]
17230 If we are not wholly wise, we should live by good rules and maxims [Spinoza]
17231 God feels no emotions, of joy or sorrow [Spinoza]
21876 After death, something eternal remains of the mind [Spinoza]
4865 The eyes of the mind are proofs [Spinoza]
16198 Knowledge is the essence of the mind [Spinoza]