Mind, Automaton, Mechanism, Autonomy

In Improvement of the Understanding, Spinoza briefly uses the term "automaton" to characterize Mind.  The term has thus suggested to a least one recent scholar that his concept of Mind is mechanistic, which, because Mind, according to Spinoza, is part of Nature, seems to conform to the Cartesian/Newtonian concept of Nature.  However, according to Deleuze, 'automaton' connotes something different than its standard contemporary English meaning.  He, instead, interprets it as 'autonomous being', which is certainly well-grounded etymologically.  But stronger support for that interpretation can be found elsewhere in Improvement, in a passage in which Spinoza characterizes Mind as creating its own "tools", i. e. operations that facilitate its work.  He gives no instances, but the formation of algorithms seems exemplary.  Indeed, he even uses the term "mechanisms" to characterize its simpler operations.  So, to that extent, "automaton" does connote 'mechanical'.  But, the capacity of Mind to far transcend such mechanisms with more complex inventions, tends to confirm the interpretation of "automaton" as 'autonomous being'.