contain error; accordingly error is simply false opinion.[1]
In explaining Mrs. Eddy's conception of God we showed that she eliminated will from his nature. Here we need a word more as to the psychology of will. Will as designating purpose is a mental state that recognizes the element of time and as such it is an imperfect state and belongs to mortal mind.
Mrs. Eddy says: “Human will belongs to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned;”[2] “Will-power is capable of all evil.”[3]
I do not find this doctrine taught so distinctly in Neoplatonism though it is involved in it, but it is set forth emphatically by Spinoza. Will as an act of preference or decision he recognizes as something worthy, but this he identifies with the understanding and so treats of it. He says: “There is in the mind no volition or affirmation and negation, save that which an idea, isasmuch as it is an idea, involves.”[4] Will, as purpose or wish, is an inferior mental state, the result of temporal limitations of the mind, and has no place in the understanding.[5]
The reader may examine with profit certain proof-texts given in the chapter on Theology.
- ↑ Cf. Eth. 2. 40. Note 2. and 2. 41 with Eth. 2. 17. He says that error occurs only in the first kind of knowledge, to which belongs, as he specifies, imagination and opinion.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 144.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 206.
- ↑ Eth. 2. 49.
- ↑ Cf. Eth. 1. Appendix.
