Ordo et connexio verborum Spinoza on the Genesis and Nature of Human Language

Abstract

Spinoza’s remarks on language are often treated as fragmentary and inconsistent with his philosophy. This paper argues that they become intelligible when situated within his account of the imaginative origin of language. Drawing on Part II of the Ethics, it shows how linguistic signs arise from stabilized associations among ideas and develops a unified account of universals, linguistic custom ( usus , consuetudo ), and the limits of cognitio ex signis , explaining both the emergence of meaning and its epistemic instability.