Horst Steinke, Vico’s Ring. Notes on the“Scienza nuova”, its Structure, and the Hermeneutics of Homer’s Works

Horst Steinke

from premise to conclusion»

, it is difficult to see how

Ethics

could measure up to this standard. We will just give the follow-

ing example, on Spinoza’s characterization of “good”

. As can

be seen, the individual statements that need to be related are

scattered across Parts IV and V in different contexts, and thus

fail, on the face of it, to constitute a “linear” step-by-step deduc-

tive chain

Part IV, Definition 1: «By

good

I mean that which we cer-

tainly know to be useful to us»;

Part IV, Proposition VIII, Proof: «We call a thing good

or evil, when it is of service or the reverse in preserving our be-

ing, that is, when it increases or diminishes, helps of hinders, our

power of activity»;

Part IV, Proposition XXXVIII: «

Whatsoever disposes the

human body, so as to render it capable of being affected in an increased num-

ber of ways, or of affecting external bodies in an increased number of ways, is

useful to man

»;

Part IV, Proposition XX: «

The more every man endeavors, and

is able to seek what is useful to him – in other words, to preserve his own

being – the more is he endowed with virtue

»;

Part IV, Definition VIII: «By

virtue

(

virtus

) and

power

mean the same thing; […] in so far as it has the power of effect-

ing what can only be understood by the laws of that nature»;

Part V, Definition II: «I say that we

act

when anything

takes place, either within us or externally to us, whereof we are

the adequate cause».

Upon closer scrutiny, it cannot escape that in addition to the

use of elementary logic –

something increases our power of

acting,

then

it is good,

else

it is evil –, a wealth of new factors and

concepts is injected into the exposition of what is

good

useful

pow-

acting

virtue

laws

nature

adequate

cause

to name a few. These

are all highly complex concepts in their own right, and their in-

troduction in the line of reasoning bursts the confines of a purely

deductive system

. So, on this way of reading,

Ethics

should not