ode of thought (II.
xi.), therefore it cannot be the free cause of its actions (I.
xvii. Coroll. ii.); in other words, it cannot have an absolute
faculty of positive or negative volition; but (by I. xxviii.) it
must be determined by a cause, which has also been determined by
another cause, and this last by another, &c. Q.E.D.

Note.--In the same way it is proved, that there is in the mind
no absolute faculty of understanding, desiring, loving, &c.
Whence it follows, that these and similar faculties are either
entirely fictitious, or are merely abstract and general terms,
such as we are accustomed to put together from particular things.
Thus the intellect and the will stand in the same relation to
this or that idea, or this or that volition, as "lapidity" to
this or that stone, or as "man" to Peter and Paul. The cause
which leads men to consider themselves free has been set forth in
the Appendix to Part I. But, before I proceed further, I would
here remark that, by the will to affirm and decide, I mean the
faculty, not the desire. I mean, I repeat, the faculty, whereby
the mind affirms or denies what is true or false, not the desire,
wherewith the mind wishes for or turns away from any given thing.
After we have proved, that these faculties of ours are general
notions, which cannot be distinguished from the particular
instances on which they are based, we must inquire whether
volitions themselves are anything besides the ideas of things.
We must inquire, I say, whether there is in the mind any
affirmation or negation beyond that, which the idea, in so far as
it is an idea, involves. On which subject see the following
proposition, and II. Def. iii., lest the idea of pictures should
suggest itself. For by ideas I do not mean images such as are
formed at the back of the eye, or in the midst of the brain, but
the conceptions of thought.

PROP. XLIX. There is in the mind no volition or affirmation and
negation, save that which an idea, inasmuch as it is an idea,
involves.

Proof.--There is in the mind no absolute faculty of positive
or negative volition, but only particular volitions, namely, this
or that affirmation, and this or that negation. Now let us
conceive a particular volition, namely, the mode of thinking
whereby the mind affirms, that the three interior angles of a
triangle are equal to two right angles. This affirmation
involves the conception or idea of a triangle, that is, without
the idea of a t