Outline

1. Since we cannot love what is unknown to us, what motivates us to get to know anything? (1.1.–2.4)

2. How, in particular can the mind seek to know itself? (3.5–4.6)

3. Becoming preoccupied with images of bodies, the mind may become confused about itself. (5.7–6.8)

4. Thus, some have come to think the mind is blood, brain, or something other bodily thing. (7.9)

5. But, unlike a body, no part of the mind occupies less extension the whole. (7.10)

6. Nothing is so present to the mind as the mind itself. (7.10–9.12)

7. The nature of the mind is to be discovered in what we cannot doubt about ourselves, e.g., that we live, remember, understand, will, think, know, and judge. (10.13–14)

8. Since the mind is certain of its essence and is not certain that it is anything bodily, it is not [essentially] anything bodily. (10.15–16)

9. Memory, understanding, and will together constitute an image of the Divine Trinity. (11.17–12.19)

Chapter 1

Let us now proceed in an orderly fashion, with a more exact purpose, to explain these same questions more thoroughly. First of all, since no one can in any way love a thing that is wholly unknown, we must carefully examine of what sort is the love of those who study, that is, of those who do not yet know a branch of knowledge, but are eager to learn it. For even with respect to those things to which the term “study” is not generally applied, love often arises by simply hearing about them.