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Vico’s Ring
151
“model(s)”, and even of discussion at the next higher level, the
variation in alternative (representational) relations
333
.
By referring to the notion of language as “universal medium”
as «an ultimate presupposition of twentieth-century philoso-
phy»
334
, the issue of anachronism presents itself anew, this time
with reference to Vico’s philosophy of language. It is therefore
important to look back to the early modern age with this prob-
lematic in mind. Although the historiography of language philos-
ophies typically does not include this criterion in its expositions,
evidence is not missing of the presence of these presupposi-
tions
335
. And of more than ordinary interest and relevance are the
ideas of Spinoza with respect to language, in themselves, but also
for the purpose of juxtaposing them to Vico’s treatment of, and
attitude toward, language, thus putting us in a position to give
the Vichian view a more highly marked character, analogously to
the comparison/contrast between Spinoza and Vico explored
earlier in a different context.
Spinoza’s reflections and treatment of language are found in a
number of his works, but despite the very different “genres” and
contexts involved, they are consistent with each other, and com-
plement and elucidate each other, which is nothing less than one
would expect from «one of the greatest philosophers of the sev-
enteenth century, or of any time»
336
. The first observation to be
made is that Spinoza does not accord language an ontological
status of its own, or independently of any other entities of his
philosophical system. Rather, language makes its appearance as
an adjunct to, or within, his theory of knowledge which stipu-
lates a «first kind», a «second kind», and a «third kind» of
knowledge, arranged in ascending hierarchical order. Language,
denoted by Spinoza as «words», belongs to the first kind, stated
in a key text in
Ethics
, along with its fundamental differences with
the other two kinds of knowledge; although this is stated ex-
tremely succinctly, all the essential characteristics of each type of