57 / 298
Vico’s Ring
57
71
See A. V. Garrett,
Meaning in Spinoza’s Method
, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 2003, pp. 103-109; on Hobbes’ philosophy of the geometric
method, see R. Miner,
Truth in the Making: Creative knowledge in theology and phi-
losophy
, New York-London, Routledge, 2004, pp. 78-95, and A. Bird,
Squaring
the Circle: Hobbes on Philosophy and Geometry
, in «Journal of the History of Ideas»,
57, 1996, 2, pp. 217-231. While this article does not refer to Spinoza, various
aspects hightlighted are echoed in Spinozan themes, such as epistemic hierar-
chy, true reasoning as purely deductive, human happiness by following geom-
etry in moral philosophy, opposition to authority by theologians. A brief
overview of other early modern thinkers who employed the geometric meth-
od (in the logico-deductive sense) in at least some parts of their works is pro-
vided in A. V. Garrett,
Meaning in Spinoza’s Method,
cit., pp. 9-11, making refer-
ence also to Pufendorf, Descartes, Cumberland, Geulincx, Morin, Weigel,
and, of course, Bacon. Since our essay mainly ignores historical background,
we will let Garrett throw some light on the historical situation by characteriz-
ing it as «the chaos of early modern Europe». In these dire conditions,
Hobbes proposed that «philosophy […] be geometrized like physics and natu-
ral reason […] demonstrate necessary and unshakeable truths about meta-
physics, morals, and politics, as certain as the truths of mathematics» (
ibid.
, p.
11) On the factors involved in the ravages of the 17
th
century, see also G.
Parker,
Global Crisis: War, Climate Change & Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century
,
New Haven-London, Yale University Press, 2013. With respect to such refer-
ence to historical background, we do well noting, however, Lachterman’s cau-
tion against «vulgar historicism, […] that a text is in some sense the unself-
conscious and inevitable product of its historical circumstances» (Id.,
The Phys-
ics of Spinoza’s ETHICS
, cit., p. 72). This is especially true for the great minds,
including Spinoza and Vico.
72
A. V. Garrett,
Meaning in Spinoza’ Method
, cit., p. 8.
73
V. Viljanen,
Spinoza’s Geometry of Power
, Cambridge, Cambridge Universi-
ty Press, 2011, p. 149. Mark (in
Ordine Geometrica Demonstrata
,
cit., p. 269)
called it «an extraordinary piece of organization, meticulously arranged».
74
Quotation marks around terms from
Ethics
are meant to indicate that
they are to be understood in terms of Spinoza’s own philosophy, not accord-
ing to common usage, or, for that matter, use by other philosophers.
75
Ibid.
, p. 8, footnote 14.
76
Taken from D. R. Lachterman,
The Physics of Spinoza’s ETHICS,
cit., p.
93.
77
Quoted from B. de Spinoza,
On the Improvement of the Understanding, The
Ethics, Correspondence
, trans. and with an introduction by R. H. M. Elwes
(1883), reprint: New York, Dover Publications, 1955; italics original.