Vico’s Ring
153
the human body, being limited, is only capable of distinctly forming a
certain number of images within itself at the same time; […] the imag-
es will begin to be confused; […] all will become entirely confused one
with another. […] When the images become quite confused in the
body, the mind also imagines all bodies confusedly without any distinc-
tion, and will comprehend them, as it were, under one arttribute,
namely under the attribute of Being, Thing, &c. [terms styled
transcen-
dental
]. […] All may be reduced to this, that these terms represent ideas
in the highest degree confused. From similar causes arise those no-
tions, which we call
general,
such as man, horse, dog, & c.
In order to contrast the first kind of knowledge with the sec-
ond and third kinds, it is heuristically helpful to “leapfrog” di-
rectly to the third kind for which Spinoza reserves the special
term «intuitive knowledge (
scientia intuitiva
)»
340
. It is no exaggera-
tion to say that the core of Spinoza’s philosophy is encapsulated
in “intuitive knowledge”, a body of knowledge that is not intui-
tive in a psychological sense, at least not primarlily so, but “intu-
iting”, possessing the deepest kind of insight and comprehension
of the very essence and nature of reality in all its manifesta-
tions
341
which, for Spinoza, meant the one substance (sometimes
paraphrased by commentators as “God-Nature”
sans
a transcen-
dental God), all else being merely
attributes
or
modes
of the sub-
stance, including especially the human mind. This third kind of
knowledge is therefore the depository of pure thought and true
ideas in a strict sense, produced by an unencumbered mind, un-
sullied by images formed by the body
342
.
The second kind of knowledge is the province of
reason
, en-
compassing general reasoning
ability, but especially scientific rea-
soning and methodology. Whereas the first kind of knowledge is
entirely contingent and unsystematic, reason is able to discern
what is invariant and not subject to vicissitudes
343
. Although Spi-
noza did not engage in scientific work extensively, his corre-
spondence
344
bears testimony to his keen interest in scientific re-
search, not shying away from performing actual experiments.