«Historia Scripturæ» e scienza spinoziana. Il lessico della scienza in Spinoza, fra ragione e empiria

The present paper is dedicated to the role given to enumeration in Spinoza’s contribution to the sciences, and to the theoretic status it receives. Inductive procedures, coupled with a controlled use of enumeration, are central both in his analysis of the passions and in his historical science, in which the deduction of effects from causes necessarily brings more complex explicative schemes into play. In particular, in the Tractatus theologico-politicus the ontology of the «causa sui» exposed in the Ethics is faced with the collection of historical and natural data discovered therein («concludere», «elicere»), and with practical disciplines such as mechanics, optics and psychology. Does inductive science therefore break away from the systematic exposition of ontology? Or does it not rather confirm it, putting it to the test?