2p35sc.md (1387B)
1 In the note to II. xvii. I explained how error consists 2 in the privation of knowledge, but in order to throw more light 3 on the subject I will give an example. For instance, men are 4 mistaken in thinking themselves free; their opinion is made up 5 of consciousness of their own actions, and ignorance of the 6 causes by which they are conditioned. Their idea of freedom, 7 therefore, is simply their ignorance of any cause for their 8 actions. As for their saying that human actions depend on the 9 will, this is a mere phrase without any idea to correspond 10 thereto. What the will is, and how it moves the body, they none 11 of them know; those who boast of such knowledge, and feign 12 dwellings and habitations for the soul, are wont to provoke 13 either laughter or disgust. So, again, when we look at the sun, 14 we imagine that it is distant from us about two hundred feet; 15 this error does not lie solely in this fancy, but in the fact 16 that, while we thus imagine, we do not know the sun's true 17 distance or the cause of the fancy. For although we afterwards 18 learn, that the sun is distant from us more than six hundred of 19 the earth's diameters, we none the less shall fancy it to be near; 20 for we do not imagine the sun as near us, because we are 21 ignorant of its true distance, but because the modification of 22 our body involves the essence of the sun, in so far as our said 23 body is affected thereby. 24 25