Full Idea
The mind has only a confused knowledge of itself, its own body, and external bodies, as long as it is perceived from fortuitous encounters with things, ...and not internally, from the agreements, differences and oppositions of a number of things at once.
Gist of Idea
Encounters with things confuse the mind, and internal comparisons bring clarity
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], II Pr 29s)
A Reaction
[compressed] This is a very nice expression of the commitment to coherence as justification, typical of the rationalist view of things. Empiricists are trapped in an excessively atomistic concept of knowledge (one impression or sense datum at a time).
Book Reference
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics', ed/tr. Curley,Edwin [Penguin 1996], p.52