Vico’s Ring
155
out errors on the part of dissenting speakers; in other words, it is
not just the substantive views that are critiqued, but indirectly
language itself by association. It shows up in locutions such as:
for a person to say that […]; if anyone affirmed […]; would be the
same as saying that a false idea was true […]
349
; [b]ut, it is said, suppos-
ing that […] But persons who say this must admit that […] But it will
be said, there is […] What is such an assertion, but […] the height of
absurdity
350
; we do not apply names to things rightly […] men do not
rightly explain their meanings or do not rightly interpret the meaning
of others
351
; [i]t is further necessary that they should distinguish be-
tween ideas and words, […] These three – namely, images, words, and
ideas – are by many persons either entirely confused together, or not
distinguisged with sufficient accuracy and care […] The essence of
words and images is put together by bodily motions, which in no wise
involve the conception of thought
352
; they say that Nature has fallen
short […] from their own prejudices […] of what they pronounce up-
on […]. As for the terms
good
and
bad,
they
,
[…] are merely modes of
thinking […], useful for us to retain […] in the sense I have indicated
353
.
In the more freewheeling, less guarded, setting of personal
correspondence, Spinoza’s attitude toward language finds more
explicit expression. In
Letter 17
, in order to illustrate imagination,
he compares it to dreaming and the vivid images that appear in
dreams, but, significantly, for our point of view, describes it as
«linking together and interconnecting its images and
words
» (Ital-
ics added). This is consistent with how he had defined the scope
of the first kind of knowledge as including body-bound imagina-
tion and language. In
Letter 19
he refers to «speaking improperly
or in merely human fashion», adding that «Scripture, […]
adapted to […] the common people, continually speaks in merely
human fashion, for the common people are incapable of under-
standing higher things», and that the «Prophets […] made up a
whole parable, […] constantly depicted God in human form;
[…] [s]o philosophers […] should not find such words a stum-
bling block»
354
; in
Letter 23
, Spinoza further repudiates all lan-