timelets

“Aristotle made these points clear:
"But the virtues are not in this point analogous to the arts. The products of art have their excellence in themselves, and so it is enough if when produced they are of a certain quality; but in the case of the virtues, a man is not said to act justly or temperately (or like a just or temperate man) if what he does merely be of a certain sort—he must also be in a certain state of mind when he does it: i.e., first of all, he must know what he is doing; secondly, he must choose it, and choose it for itself; and, thirdly, his act must be the expression of a formed and stable character.”

--- John Dewey. “Ethics.”

“The extreme conservative may deprecate any scrutiny of the present order; the ardent radical may be impatient of the critical and seemingly tardy processes of the investigator; but those who have considered well the conquest which man is making of the world of nature cannot forbear the conviction that the cruder method of trial and error and the time-honored method of prejudice and partisan controversy need not longer completely dominate the regulation of the life of society. They hope for a larger application of the scientific method to the problems of human welfare and progress”

--- John Dewey. "Ethics", 1932.

PROP. XV.

He who clearly and distinctly
understands himself
and his emotions

loves God,

and so much the more
in proportion
as he more
understands himself
and his emotions.

Proof.—

He who clearly and distinctly understands
himself
and his emotions
feels pleasure (III. liii.),

and this pleasure is
(by the last Prop.)
accompanied by
the idea of God;

therefore (Def. of the Emotions, vi.)
such a one
loves God,

and (for the same reason)
so much the more
in proportion as he more understands himself
and his emotions.

Q.E.D.

--- Spinoza, The Ethics, Part V, Prop XV

Hence it follows, 
             that the human mind 
is part of the infinite 
             intellect of God; 

thus when we say, that 
           the human mind perceives this or that, 
                     we make the assertion, that 
God has this or that idea, 

not in so far as he is infinite, 
                           but 
in so far as he is 
              displayed through the nature of the human mind, 
or in so far as 

he constitutes the essence 
                 of the human mind; 

and when we say that 
             God has this or that idea, 
not only in so far as 
           he constitutes the essence of the human mind, 

but also in so far as 
           he, simultaneously with the human mind, 
                       has the further idea of another thing, 

we assert that 
the human mind perceives a thing 
           in part or inadequately.


--- Spinoza, The Ethics. Part II, Prop XI, Corollary. 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3800/3800-h/3800-h.htm#chap02