Mind regards things as present

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Often appears with: rational perception · perception and the senses · necessity vs contingency · imagination and time · fate, destiny, and necessity · causes of contingency belief

Usually: reflection (1) · skepticism (1)

Quotable

“It is in the nature of reason to perceive things truly, namely (I. Ax. vi.), as they are in themselves—that is (I. xxix.), not as contingent, but as necessary.” Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics — Part 2 · insight

Ethics — Part 2 primary

Benedictus de Spinoza · 1675-1676
Part II: ON THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE MIND > Part. We there drew the conclusion, that God can form the idea of his essence, and of all things which follow necessarily therefrom, solely because he is a thinking thing, and not because he is the object of his own idea. Wherefore the actual being of ideas owns for cause God, in so far as he is a thinking thing. (22/30)

Reason, unlike imagination, treats things as necessary rather than contingent, explaining that humans imagine future or past states as contingent due to how the mind and body track present sensations and memories over time.

truly, is part of the infinite intellect of God (II. xi. Cor.); therefore, the clear and distinct ideas of the mind are as necessarily true as the ideas of God. XLIV. It is not in the nature of reason to regard things as contingent, but as necessary. >>>>>Proof--It is in the nature of reason to perceive things truly (II. xli.), namely (I. Ax. vi.), as they are in themselves--that is (I. xxix.), not as contingent, …