  An alternative mentioned above that has been suggested is to deny the gap between the attributes and the substance by claiming that, along with Descartes, Spinoza holds there to be a rational distinction between them, that is, in reality they are identical (Shein, 2009). This avoids the kind of problems that are raised for the subjectivist view, since, in this interpretation to know the attributes is to know the substance. Since in this view the attributes are only rationally distinct from the substance, the “real distinction” between the attributes, that Spinoza states in 1P10Schol, is understood as being only an epistemological claim, as he states in the text—“i.e., one may be conceived without the other” (1P10Schol). That is, it does not carry additional ontological weight as the objectivists hold. This avoids having to impose onto the Spinozistic system an attribute-independent structure to account for the unity which does not seem to fit with his epistemology.