241 / 298
Vico’s Ring
241
to pose as a programmatic
method
for getting at the meaning of the Bible and
more recognition that we all read it from different […] vantage points, be they
ideologies, orientations, or […] the platform of insights from an adjacent dis-
cipline» (
ibid., Preface,
pp. xi-xiii, pp. xii, xiii; italics original). Such re-
classification of “methods” as “approaches” is not without fundamental her-
meneutical consequences, since it entails re-classification of the domain of
discourse, and the exchange of an epistemic paradigm for a doxastic one.
483
TTP
, pp. 97, 98.
484
This is the inevitable conclusion that Spinoza himself pointed out:
«These difficulties […], I consider so grave that I have no hesitation in affirm-
ing that in many instances we either do not know the true meaning of Scrip-
ture or we can do no more than make conjecture» (
TTP
, p. 98). In the words
of Morrison, «[b]y elaborating the “difficulties” and “imperfections” of
achieving an adequate history of Scripture he shows that these conditions
cannot be fulfilled» (Id.,
Vico and Spinoza
, cit., p. 67).
485
Tosel treated this Euclid-related passage in more detail in
Spinoza ou le
crépuscule de la servitude
, cit., pp. 65-67, e.g. commenting: «En effet, un texte in-
telligible, à la limite, possède une intelligibilité éternelle; il vaut pour tous les
temps, tous les lieux (Indeed, an intelligible text, ultimately, possesses an eter-
nal intelligibility; it is valid for all time, everywhere)» (
ibid.
, p. 65).
486
TTP
, p. 90.
487
Ibid.
, p. 98.
488
To quote Tosel again: «L’idée vraie d’un texte intelligible efface dans
son propre procès les circonstances devenues alors extrinsèques de sa propre
genèse empirique. […] A la limite une œuvre philosophique vraiment eucli-
dienne porte avec elle la nécessité, en tous cas la possibilité d’effacer jusqu’au
nom de son auteur (The true idea of an intelligible text effaces in its own pro-
cess of becoming the external circumstances of its own empirical develop-
ment. […] Ultimately, a truly Euclidean philosophical work carries with it the
need, in any case the possibility, of effacing even the name of its author)» (Id.,
Spinoza ou le crépuscule de la servitude
, cit., p. 66); see also Ch. Norris,
Spinoza &
the Origins of Modern Critical Theory
, cit., pp. 29-30: «As usual, it is the model of
Euclidean geometry that Spinoza takes as his ideal case of a knowledge ex-
empt from all accidents of time and place».
489
TTP
, p. 98, second paragraph, to p. 99, first paragraph (inclusive).
490
Ibid.
, pp. 87-88.
491
Ibid.
, p. 88.
492
Walther dissects Spinoza’s biblical hermeneutics also in terms of his
tripartite epistemic system, albeit without using Spinoza’s numerical nomen-
clature (added by us): «Spinoza fügt also zwischen [3
rd
kind of knowledge:] der