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Horst Steinke

60

93

A detailed discussion can be found in E. M. Curley,

Spinoza’s Geometric

Method

, in «Studia Spinozana», 2, 1986, pp. 151-169.

94

A. V. Garrett,

Meaning in Spinoza’s Method

, cit., p. 14: «The definitions

with which one begins a deduction, though, are the crucial support and war-

rant of the deduction».

95

This is E. Curley’s view, in

Behind the Geometrical Method: A Reading of Spi-

noza’s

Ethics, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1988, p. 52: «It is not true

that we must first have a firm grasp of Spinoza’s initial assumptions before we

can understand what follows them. Often we can get more of the sense of a

formula by seeing what follows from it […], than we can by focussing all of

our attention on the formula itself».

96

A. V. Garrett,

Meaning in Spinoza’s Method

, cit., p. 15: «One might hope to

justify the definitions through the propositions that arise from them. This ap-

proach would be circular though, and to justify a cause through its effects

would be invalid for Spinoza».

97

Th. C. Mark,

Ordine Geometrica Demonstrata

, cit., pp. 278-279.

98

Commonly referred to, according to a fairly “literal” translation or ra-

ther transliteration, as

Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect

(henceforth re-

ferred to as

TdIE),

whereas the Elwes translation uses the title

On the Improve-

ment of the Understanding

as semantically equivalent. For a discussion of

TdIE

,

see I. Franck,

Spinoza’s Logic of Inquiry: Rationalist of Experientialist?

, in

The Philos-

ophy of Baruch Spinoza

, cit., pp. 247-272, pp. 255-261; A. V. Garrett,

Meaning in

Spinoza’s Method

, cit., pp. 73-96.

99

Vico used the term “degnità” instead of “assioma”; according to P. Cri-

stofolini,

La Scienza nuova

di Vico,

cit., p. 77: «Vico ha voluto latinizzare il più

corrente “assioma”, di origine greca (Vico wanted to Latinize the more com-

mon “axioms” of Greek origin)». Further illuminating background on Vico’s

word choice can be found in J. R. Goetsch,

Vico’s Axioms

, cit., pp. 109-111. In

the 1730 edition, this particular section of Book I has a lengthy subtitle that

includes all three terms “axioms”, “

degnità

”, and “elements”: «Assiomi, o Deg-

nità […], Diffinizioni, […] che devon’essere gli Elementi di questa Scienza

dell’Umanità», whereas the 1744 edition simply has: «Degli Elementi» (G. Vi-

co,

La Scienza nuova. Le tre edizioni,

cit., pp. 446, 857). If the wording in 1730 to

some degree betrays a preoccupation with the validity of the process followed

itself, in the 1744 heading, the focus is entirely on the subject matter itself.

100

The three main sources referred to are A. Fáj,

Vico as Philosopher of

Metabasis, in

Giambattista Vico’s Science of Humanity

, cit., pp. 87-109; Id.,

The

Unorthodox Logic of Scientific Discovery,

in

Vico: Past and Present,

cit., pp. 199-205;

E. McMullin,

Vico’s Theory of Science

, in G. Tagliacozzo, M. Mooney, D. Ph.

Verene

(ed. by),

Vico and Contemporary Thought

, Atlantic Highlands, Humanities