  The attempt to understand Spinoza’s doctrine regarding the attributes has traditionally led interpreters in two main directions, although others have been proposed (e.g. Lennon, 2005. 12–30; Shein,  2009).[11]  The first is what is known as the “subjective” interpretation which follows Hegel, and is given its paradigmatic expression by Wolfson. More recently, Michael Della Rocca as been advocating a more idealistic interpretation of the attributes, which shares certain important features with the subjectivist camp. The other, which has become the standard, is the “objective” interpretation. These two principal avenues stem from some important ambiguities in the definition of “attribute”: “By attribute I understand what the intellect perceives of substance as constituting its essence”  (1D4).[12]  The first term that is ambiguous is “intellect,” since it can refer either to the finite intellect or the infinite one (cf. diagram in Section 1).  The second important ambiguity lies in the Latin term tanquam, since it can mean either “as if, but not in fact,” or “as in fact.” The definition can therefore be read, either as stating that attributes are what the intellect perceives of substance as constituting its actual essence, or that attributes are what the intellect perceives only as if they are what constitute the essence but are not what in fact constitutes it or them. The subjectivists accordingly claim that attributes are what the finite intellect perceives of substance as if constituting its essence. The objectivists, by and large, instead claim that it is the infinite intellect that perceives the attribute as in fact constituting the essence of substance. In the following sections the different interpretative options are explained a grosso modo. The ways in which the different interpretative avenues affect other Spinozistic doctrines are discussed in Sections 1.9.1–1.9.4.