207 / 298
Vico’s Ring
207
type(s) of information that needed to be gathered in research.
However, although he withholds his own considered judgments
in these matters until later in the chapter, the brief statements
under this third point, numbered by himself, already provide a
preview, or rather, lay the groundwork. On the first concern,
having to do with the authors, their personalities and back-
ground, as well as the historical occasion/background of their
writings, his objective transcends historiography: it is «to know
which pronouncements were set forth as
laws
and which as
moral
teaching
», on the one hand, and «to avoid confusing teachings of
eternal significance
with those which are only of
temporary signifi-
cance
»
450
. It is obvious that we are no longer in the realm of disin-
terested historical and linguistic studies pursued for the sake of
building up as accurate and complete a picture of moments in
history as the available evidence warrants, but in the realm of
theology proper
451
. With respect to the second subject, the text
itself as a physical object, the concern seems to be purely philo-
logical, in the academically accepted usage, such as «how many
variant versions there were». However, the technical question is
then transformed into the value-laden problematic of «whether
or not it may have been contaminated by spurious insertions,
whether errors have crept in, and whether these have been cor-
rected by experienced and trustworthy scholars». Nothing less
than «what is certain and incontrovertible (
quod certum et indubita-
tum est
)»
452
will suffice. Spinoza has definite views and responses
on this problematic, but holds them in suspense until after he
has presented the perspective under which he wants the quest
for historical and linguistic understanding to be seen, as the next
section of his methodological essay shows.
This section
453
, of considerable length relative to the sketch of
his three major hermeneutical tasks, differs from what preceded
it in that it turns from the requisite first kind of knowledge in the
form of ‘raw’ data, heretofore considered, to the task of trans-
forming the accumulated data into the second kind of