Terence Ball
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198279952
- eISBN:
- 9780191598753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279957.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Although both Giambattista Vico and Karl Marx claimed that men `make’ their own history, each had a different view of what `making’ means and what it entails. Both agreed that humans have a special ...
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Although both Giambattista Vico and Karl Marx claimed that men `make’ their own history, each had a different view of what `making’ means and what it entails. Both agreed that humans have a special sort of knowledge—`maker's knowledge—of what they have made. But Vico's view that Verum et factum convertuntur—that knowing and making are one—relies on a distinctly non‐material or linguistic–communicative conception of making (as in making a promise or making sense), while Marx's conception of making is decidedly materialist and is concerned with the human transformation of nature through productive labour.Less
Although both Giambattista Vico and Karl Marx claimed that men `make’ their own history, each had a different view of what `making’ means and what it entails. Both agreed that humans have a special sort of knowledge—`maker's knowledge—of what they have made. But Vico's view that Verum et factum convertuntur—that knowing and making are one—relies on a distinctly non‐material or linguistic–communicative conception of making (as in making a promise or making sense), while Marx's conception of making is decidedly materialist and is concerned with the human transformation of nature through productive labour.
Donald Phillip Verene
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781501700163
- eISBN:
- 9781501701863
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501700163.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) is best remembered for his major work, the New Science (Scienza nuova), in which he sets forth the principles of humanity and gives an account of the stages common to ...
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Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) is best remembered for his major work, the New Science (Scienza nuova), in which he sets forth the principles of humanity and gives an account of the stages common to the development of all societies in their historical life. Controversial at the time of its publication in 1725, the New Science has come to be seen as the most ambitious attempt before Auguste Comte at a comprehensive science of human society and the most profound analysis of the philosophy of history prior to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This book can be read as an introduction to Vico’s thought or it can be employed as a guide to the comprehension of specific sections of the New Science. The book offers a clear and direct discussion of the contents of each division of the New Science with close attention to the sources of Vico’s thought in Greek philosophy and in Roman jurisprudence. It also highlights the grounding of the New Science in Vico’s other works and the opposition of Vico’s views to those of the seventeenth-century natural-law theorists. The addition of an extensive glossary of Vico’s Italian terminology makes this an ideal companion to Vico’s masterpiece.Less
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) is best remembered for his major work, the New Science (Scienza nuova), in which he sets forth the principles of humanity and gives an account of the stages common to the development of all societies in their historical life. Controversial at the time of its publication in 1725, the New Science has come to be seen as the most ambitious attempt before Auguste Comte at a comprehensive science of human society and the most profound analysis of the philosophy of history prior to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This book can be read as an introduction to Vico’s thought or it can be employed as a guide to the comprehension of specific sections of the New Science. The book offers a clear and direct discussion of the contents of each division of the New Science with close attention to the sources of Vico’s thought in Greek philosophy and in Roman jurisprudence. It also highlights the grounding of the New Science in Vico’s other works and the opposition of Vico’s views to those of the seventeenth-century natural-law theorists. The addition of an extensive glossary of Vico’s Italian terminology makes this an ideal companion to Vico’s masterpiece.
DONALD PHILLIP VERENE
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198239000
- eISBN:
- 9780191679810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198239000.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This introductory chapter discusses the coverage of this book, which is about Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico's Autobiography. It explains that relative to other areas of Vico studies, the ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the coverage of this book, which is about Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico's Autobiography. It explains that relative to other areas of Vico studies, the Autobiography is Vico's forgotten work and it has never been analysed as part of his philosophy. This book attempts to reconnect points and quotations from Autobiography with other parts or aspects of Vico's thought. It considers Vico as the founder of the new art of autobiography and describes the highlights and low points in his career.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the coverage of this book, which is about Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico's Autobiography. It explains that relative to other areas of Vico studies, the Autobiography is Vico's forgotten work and it has never been analysed as part of his philosophy. This book attempts to reconnect points and quotations from Autobiography with other parts or aspects of Vico's thought. It considers Vico as the founder of the new art of autobiography and describes the highlights and low points in his career.
James I. Porter
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199212989
- eISBN:
- 9780191594205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212989.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The chapter examines Erich Auerbach's contrastive analysis from 1942 of Homer and the Jewish Old Testament, situating that analysis firmly in its immediate historical context of German fascism, ...
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The chapter examines Erich Auerbach's contrastive analysis from 1942 of Homer and the Jewish Old Testament, situating that analysis firmly in its immediate historical context of German fascism, anti‐Semitism, and exile. The thesis is that by indexing the present historical moment in his reading, Auerbach, the displaced German Jew in Istanbul, is historicizing philology. At the same time he is inverting the political polarities of philology, not least by contrasting the two treatments (Homeric, biblical‐Jewish) of time, truth, and revelation in the two traditions that he is less comparing than critically pitting against each other. And he is undertaking all this in opposition to the ingrained tendencies of an anti‐Semitic classical philology and in the context of efforts in Germany to de‐Judaize Christianity. While he is remembered today as the founder of comparative literature, Auerbach is in fact Judaizing philology; that is, he is constructing a new oppositional Jewish philology that departs dramatically from the conventions of classical philology and romance philology.Less
The chapter examines Erich Auerbach's contrastive analysis from 1942 of Homer and the Jewish Old Testament, situating that analysis firmly in its immediate historical context of German fascism, anti‐Semitism, and exile. The thesis is that by indexing the present historical moment in his reading, Auerbach, the displaced German Jew in Istanbul, is historicizing philology. At the same time he is inverting the political polarities of philology, not least by contrasting the two treatments (Homeric, biblical‐Jewish) of time, truth, and revelation in the two traditions that he is less comparing than critically pitting against each other. And he is undertaking all this in opposition to the ingrained tendencies of an anti‐Semitic classical philology and in the context of efforts in Germany to de‐Judaize Christianity. While he is remembered today as the founder of comparative literature, Auerbach is in fact Judaizing philology; that is, he is constructing a new oppositional Jewish philology that departs dramatically from the conventions of classical philology and romance philology.
Douglas Hedley
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199563340
- eISBN:
- 9780191731303
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199563340.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter extends a project begun in the book Living Forms of the Imagination, which involves a defence of the cognitive significance of imagination. Imagination and fantasy are distinguished and ...
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This chapter extends a project begun in the book Living Forms of the Imagination, which involves a defence of the cognitive significance of imagination. Imagination and fantasy are distinguished and Vico, Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle, and others are employed to challenge modern and contemporary disparaging of imagination. Personal identity is articulated in terms of imagination and values. A robustly romantic account of imagination in the tradition of Coleridge is defended against attacks stemming from the Enlightenment.Less
This chapter extends a project begun in the book Living Forms of the Imagination, which involves a defence of the cognitive significance of imagination. Imagination and fantasy are distinguished and Vico, Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle, and others are employed to challenge modern and contemporary disparaging of imagination. Personal identity is articulated in terms of imagination and values. A robustly romantic account of imagination in the tradition of Coleridge is defended against attacks stemming from the Enlightenment.
Jason P. Rosenblatt
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199286133
- eISBN:
- 9780191713859
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199286133.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
The history of the religious toleration of Jews in England is incomplete without acknowledgment of the direct impact of Selden’s uncommonly generous Hebrew scholarship. It is not the least of ...
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The history of the religious toleration of Jews in England is incomplete without acknowledgment of the direct impact of Selden’s uncommonly generous Hebrew scholarship. It is not the least of Selden’s historical and philological achievements that he can represent the synagogue as a positive model of church institutions, and the Sanhedrin as a civil court that the English Parliament would do well to imitate. Even in the 21st century, those two cold Greek words respectively connote Jewish inferiority and cruelty: synagoga, the decrepit old woman vanquished by a vital and young ecclesia, and Sanhedrin, the tribunal that handed Christ over to the Romans to be crucified. If contemporary readers of Selden can remove the overlay of prejudice that begrimes not only the words synagogue and Sanhedrin but also Pharisee (whose negative connotations Selden, a partisan of the oral law, did much to expunge), then his cultural influence will not have ended.Less
The history of the religious toleration of Jews in England is incomplete without acknowledgment of the direct impact of Selden’s uncommonly generous Hebrew scholarship. It is not the least of Selden’s historical and philological achievements that he can represent the synagogue as a positive model of church institutions, and the Sanhedrin as a civil court that the English Parliament would do well to imitate. Even in the 21st century, those two cold Greek words respectively connote Jewish inferiority and cruelty: synagoga, the decrepit old woman vanquished by a vital and young ecclesia, and Sanhedrin, the tribunal that handed Christ over to the Romans to be crucified. If contemporary readers of Selden can remove the overlay of prejudice that begrimes not only the words synagogue and Sanhedrin but also Pharisee (whose negative connotations Selden, a partisan of the oral law, did much to expunge), then his cultural influence will not have ended.
Luzzi Joseph
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199584628
- eISBN:
- 9780191739095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199584628.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, Poetry
Ugo Foscolo produced a series of influential essays on Dante that illuminates the discrepancies between Italian and European approaches to the medieval poet. Whereas other authors labelled Dante the ...
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Ugo Foscolo produced a series of influential essays on Dante that illuminates the discrepancies between Italian and European approaches to the medieval poet. Whereas other authors labelled Dante the first ‘modern’ in order to link the concerns of their age to those of Dante's, Foscolo sought instead to preserve Dante's otherness. Rather than translate the meaning of the Commedia into a nineteenth-century idiom, Foscolo believed that inquiry into the historical milieu and overall strangeness of the Commedia offered the interpreter more than the increasingly subjective readings of the poem that had transformed Dante into a privileged model of the self in Romantic autobiography. This chapter considers how Foscolo's critique of the ‘autobiographical’ Dante circulating in the Romantic age involved his promotion of Petrarch as the primo modern (first modern) and his embrace of the poetic philology of Giambattista Vico. It shows that Foscolo's ‘anti-Romantic’ Dante helped create a tectonic shift in Dante studies that refocused the debates over the Commedia from the personal to the political realm. The chapter explores how Foscolo's comparison between Dante and Petrarch informs his views on italianità (Italian identity) as his nation took fraught steps toward a belated political unification that did not occur until decades after Foscolo's death.Less
Ugo Foscolo produced a series of influential essays on Dante that illuminates the discrepancies between Italian and European approaches to the medieval poet. Whereas other authors labelled Dante the first ‘modern’ in order to link the concerns of their age to those of Dante's, Foscolo sought instead to preserve Dante's otherness. Rather than translate the meaning of the Commedia into a nineteenth-century idiom, Foscolo believed that inquiry into the historical milieu and overall strangeness of the Commedia offered the interpreter more than the increasingly subjective readings of the poem that had transformed Dante into a privileged model of the self in Romantic autobiography. This chapter considers how Foscolo's critique of the ‘autobiographical’ Dante circulating in the Romantic age involved his promotion of Petrarch as the primo modern (first modern) and his embrace of the poetic philology of Giambattista Vico. It shows that Foscolo's ‘anti-Romantic’ Dante helped create a tectonic shift in Dante studies that refocused the debates over the Commedia from the personal to the political realm. The chapter explores how Foscolo's comparison between Dante and Petrarch informs his views on italianità (Italian identity) as his nation took fraught steps toward a belated political unification that did not occur until decades after Foscolo's death.
Amos Funkenstein
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691181356
- eISBN:
- 9780691184265
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691181356.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter analyzes how, since the seventeenth century, versions of the invisible-hand explanation were employed to illuminate the course of history, the evolution of society. Giambattista Vico ...
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This chapter analyzes how, since the seventeenth century, versions of the invisible-hand explanation were employed to illuminate the course of history, the evolution of society. Giambattista Vico described at length the slow process by which man created his social nature out of his initial brutish existence, arguing that it was a spontaneous process. Vico named this process “providence” and stressed time and again the oblique nature of its operation—unintended by individuals and unknown to them. A strong sense of the absolute autonomy and spontaneity of human history is common to all historical constructions of the invisible hand. From Vico to Marx, they envision the subject of history as capable of generating all of its institutions, beliefs, and achievements of itself.Less
This chapter analyzes how, since the seventeenth century, versions of the invisible-hand explanation were employed to illuminate the course of history, the evolution of society. Giambattista Vico described at length the slow process by which man created his social nature out of his initial brutish existence, arguing that it was a spontaneous process. Vico named this process “providence” and stressed time and again the oblique nature of its operation—unintended by individuals and unknown to them. A strong sense of the absolute autonomy and spontaneity of human history is common to all historical constructions of the invisible hand. From Vico to Marx, they envision the subject of history as capable of generating all of its institutions, beliefs, and achievements of itself.
Giovanna Ceserani
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199744275
- eISBN:
- 9780199932139
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744275.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, American History: pre-Columbian BCE to 500CE
This chapter complicates the received notion of the Magna Graecia's modern discovery during the 'Hellenic turn’ of eighteenth-century Europe. The historical geography of Leandro Alberti and others ...
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This chapter complicates the received notion of the Magna Graecia's modern discovery during the 'Hellenic turn’ of eighteenth-century Europe. The historical geography of Leandro Alberti and others shows earlier Renaissance antiquarianism's perceptions of Greek South Italy as a place of picturesque natural beauty and lost antiquity, seemingly irreconcilable with the wider Italian classical past. The eighteenth-century rediscovery of Paestum is examined within its Neapolitan intellectual context, which includes the figures of Giambattista Vico, Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi and even J.J. Winckelmann, and in relation to the emergence of vase studies analysis that reveals the differential investment of Italian and foreign scholars in Magna Graecia, with latter bent on a search for an ideal conception of classical Greece that would effectively relegate Magna Graecia to the margins of classical study.Less
This chapter complicates the received notion of the Magna Graecia's modern discovery during the 'Hellenic turn’ of eighteenth-century Europe. The historical geography of Leandro Alberti and others shows earlier Renaissance antiquarianism's perceptions of Greek South Italy as a place of picturesque natural beauty and lost antiquity, seemingly irreconcilable with the wider Italian classical past. The eighteenth-century rediscovery of Paestum is examined within its Neapolitan intellectual context, which includes the figures of Giambattista Vico, Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi and even J.J. Winckelmann, and in relation to the emergence of vase studies analysis that reveals the differential investment of Italian and foreign scholars in Magna Graecia, with latter bent on a search for an ideal conception of classical Greece that would effectively relegate Magna Graecia to the margins of classical study.
Donald Phillip Verene
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198239000
- eISBN:
- 9780191679810
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198239000.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This first study of Giambattista Vico's highly original autobiography discusses its place in the history of the genre. This book views the Autobiography as a work in which Vico applies the principles ...
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This first study of Giambattista Vico's highly original autobiography discusses its place in the history of the genre. This book views the Autobiography as a work in which Vico applies the principles of human history discussed in his New Science, making the telling of his own life an application and verification of his philosophy. The book places Vico's book within the general development of the genre, considering it in relation to Augustine's Confessions, Descartes's Discourse, and Rousseau's Confessions. The book shows Vico to be not only the founder of the philosophy of history, but also the originator of a philosophical art of self-narrative which is the response by a modern thinker to the ancient problem of self-knowledge.Less
This first study of Giambattista Vico's highly original autobiography discusses its place in the history of the genre. This book views the Autobiography as a work in which Vico applies the principles of human history discussed in his New Science, making the telling of his own life an application and verification of his philosophy. The book places Vico's book within the general development of the genre, considering it in relation to Augustine's Confessions, Descartes's Discourse, and Rousseau's Confessions. The book shows Vico to be not only the founder of the philosophy of history, but also the originator of a philosophical art of self-narrative which is the response by a modern thinker to the ancient problem of self-knowledge.
Barbara Ann Naddeo
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449161
- eISBN:
- 9780801460876
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449161.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book is an intellectual portrait of the Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668—1744) that reveals the politics and motivations of one of Europe's first scientists of society. According ...
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This book is an intellectual portrait of the Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668—1744) that reveals the politics and motivations of one of Europe's first scientists of society. According to the commonplaces of the literature on the Neapolitan, Vico was a solitary figure who, at a remove from the political life of his larger community, steeped himself in the recondite debates of classical scholarship to produce his magnum opus, the New Science. This book shows, however, that at the outset of his career, Vico was deeply engaged in the often-tumultuous life of his great city and that his experiences of civic crises shaped his inquiry into the origins and development of human society. With its attention to Vico's historical, rhetorical, and jurisprudential texts, the book recovers a Vico who was keenly attuned to the social changes transforming the political culture of his native city. He understood the crisis of the city's corporate social order and described the new social groupings that would shape its future. In the book, Vico comes alive as a prescient judge of his city and the political conundrum of Europe's burgeoning metropolises. He was dedicated to the acknowledgment and juridical remedy of Naples' vexing social divisions and ills. The book also presents biographical vignettes illuminating Vico's role as a Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Naples and his bid for the prestigious Morning Chair of Civil Law, which foundered on the directives of the Habsburgs and the politics of his native city.Less
This book is an intellectual portrait of the Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668—1744) that reveals the politics and motivations of one of Europe's first scientists of society. According to the commonplaces of the literature on the Neapolitan, Vico was a solitary figure who, at a remove from the political life of his larger community, steeped himself in the recondite debates of classical scholarship to produce his magnum opus, the New Science. This book shows, however, that at the outset of his career, Vico was deeply engaged in the often-tumultuous life of his great city and that his experiences of civic crises shaped his inquiry into the origins and development of human society. With its attention to Vico's historical, rhetorical, and jurisprudential texts, the book recovers a Vico who was keenly attuned to the social changes transforming the political culture of his native city. He understood the crisis of the city's corporate social order and described the new social groupings that would shape its future. In the book, Vico comes alive as a prescient judge of his city and the political conundrum of Europe's burgeoning metropolises. He was dedicated to the acknowledgment and juridical remedy of Naples' vexing social divisions and ills. The book also presents biographical vignettes illuminating Vico's role as a Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Naples and his bid for the prestigious Morning Chair of Civil Law, which foundered on the directives of the Habsburgs and the politics of his native city.
Frederick C. Beiser
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199691555
- eISBN:
- 9780191731839
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691555.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter is an introduction to the work of Johann Martin Chladenius (1710–59), who is the grandfather of German historicism. An introductory section discusses his early reputation and later ...
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This chapter is an introduction to the work of Johann Martin Chladenius (1710–59), who is the grandfather of German historicism. An introductory section discusses his early reputation and later revival. The second section is an examination of his hermeneutics, his theory of textual interpretation. The next five sections are devoted to Chladenius's historics, i.e., his theory of history. They consider his views on the scientific status of history, his perspectivalism, and his response to historical skepticism.Less
This chapter is an introduction to the work of Johann Martin Chladenius (1710–59), who is the grandfather of German historicism. An introductory section discusses his early reputation and later revival. The second section is an examination of his hermeneutics, his theory of textual interpretation. The next five sections are devoted to Chladenius's historics, i.e., his theory of history. They consider his views on the scientific status of history, his perspectivalism, and his response to historical skepticism.
Philip Kitcher
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195321029
- eISBN:
- 9780199851317
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195321029.003.0021
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter summarizes the principal ideas that have emerged throughout the chapter-by-chapter reading of Finnegans Wake. It aims to serve both as a helpful guide for those who are approaching ...
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This chapter summarizes the principal ideas that have emerged throughout the chapter-by-chapter reading of Finnegans Wake. It aims to serve both as a helpful guide for those who are approaching Joyce's last novel for the first time and as a detailed elaboration and defense of the book's interpretation. Even more, it hopes to inspire others to undertake their own large-scale readings. Meanwhile, music runs through Joyce's prose, and through the Wake, in particular. It is not simply a matter of the constant eruption of the songs Joyce had heard his father sing, or had sung himself but the use of rhythm to set the mood and of tonal coloring to evoke reactions in his readers.Less
This chapter summarizes the principal ideas that have emerged throughout the chapter-by-chapter reading of Finnegans Wake. It aims to serve both as a helpful guide for those who are approaching Joyce's last novel for the first time and as a detailed elaboration and defense of the book's interpretation. Even more, it hopes to inspire others to undertake their own large-scale readings. Meanwhile, music runs through Joyce's prose, and through the Wake, in particular. It is not simply a matter of the constant eruption of the songs Joyce had heard his father sing, or had sung himself but the use of rhythm to set the mood and of tonal coloring to evoke reactions in his readers.
Jonathan I. Israel
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206088
- eISBN:
- 9780191676970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206088.003.0035
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas, European Modern History
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) and Paolo Mattia Doria (1662–1746) are often characterized as ‘anti-moderns’ and it is not hard to see why. Cartesianism initiated the assault on received ideas and ...
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Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) and Paolo Mattia Doria (1662–1746) are often characterized as ‘anti-moderns’ and it is not hard to see why. Cartesianism initiated the assault on received ideas and tradition in Italy in the last two decades of the 17th century. But having first espoused Descartes' ideas, like the rest of the Neapolitan philosophical coterie at that time, both philosophers subsequently abjured Cartesianism — Vico during the first decade of the new century, Doria rather later. In his On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians (1710) Vico roundly rejects Descartes' ideas on substance, mind, matter, and motion. Later, in the 1730s, as Locke's ideas penetrated Italy, Doria became the leading opponent of the new empirical philosophy in Italy; while his learned colleague, if less outspoken in this regard, at any rate has nothing positive to say about Locke or the Lochisti.Less
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) and Paolo Mattia Doria (1662–1746) are often characterized as ‘anti-moderns’ and it is not hard to see why. Cartesianism initiated the assault on received ideas and tradition in Italy in the last two decades of the 17th century. But having first espoused Descartes' ideas, like the rest of the Neapolitan philosophical coterie at that time, both philosophers subsequently abjured Cartesianism — Vico during the first decade of the new century, Doria rather later. In his On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians (1710) Vico roundly rejects Descartes' ideas on substance, mind, matter, and motion. Later, in the 1730s, as Locke's ideas penetrated Italy, Doria became the leading opponent of the new empirical philosophy in Italy; while his learned colleague, if less outspoken in this regard, at any rate has nothing positive to say about Locke or the Lochisti.
ANDREW LOUTH
- Published in print:
- 1989
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198261964
- eISBN:
- 9780191682261
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198261964.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Early Christian Studies
This chapter presents an essay on the division between science and the humanities during the Enlightenment period. It explains that the awareness of radical differences between the sciences and the ...
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This chapter presents an essay on the division between science and the humanities during the Enlightenment period. It explains that the awareness of radical differences between the sciences and the humanities emerged as a protest against the tendency of the Enlightenment to regard the advances of modern science as proving the paradigmatic character of the sciences for all human knowing. The first person to launch such as a protest was Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico. His work was followed by a more elaborate one by Wilhelm Dilthey.Less
This chapter presents an essay on the division between science and the humanities during the Enlightenment period. It explains that the awareness of radical differences between the sciences and the humanities emerged as a protest against the tendency of the Enlightenment to regard the advances of modern science as proving the paradigmatic character of the sciences for all human knowing. The first person to launch such as a protest was Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico. His work was followed by a more elaborate one by Wilhelm Dilthey.
Jonathan I. Israel
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199279227
- eISBN:
- 9780191700040
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279227.003.0020
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas, European Modern History
This chapter begins with a discussion of the establishment of moderate mainstream Enlightenment in Italy with the election in 1740 of Prospero Lambertini as Pope Benedict XIV. It then considers ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the establishment of moderate mainstream Enlightenment in Italy with the election in 1740 of Prospero Lambertini as Pope Benedict XIV. It then considers Vico’s ideas about human history and development. It argues that while Vico is among the foremost, and most innovative, philosophers of religion of the Early Enlightenment, one cannot ignore the reality that he says practically nothing whatever about Christianity. Instead, he uses a mere label, that of ‘divine providence’, to cover the stark nakedness of what he is doing: for under the veil, he reduces Man’s religiosity to the status of a purely natural phenomenon but in a brilliantly novel manner by applying the new conception of reason as something that emerges by stages from sensibility by way of ‘imagination’, and by employing the new critique across a very broad canvas and multiplicity of historical contexts.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of the establishment of moderate mainstream Enlightenment in Italy with the election in 1740 of Prospero Lambertini as Pope Benedict XIV. It then considers Vico’s ideas about human history and development. It argues that while Vico is among the foremost, and most innovative, philosophers of religion of the Early Enlightenment, one cannot ignore the reality that he says practically nothing whatever about Christianity. Instead, he uses a mere label, that of ‘divine providence’, to cover the stark nakedness of what he is doing: for under the veil, he reduces Man’s religiosity to the status of a purely natural phenomenon but in a brilliantly novel manner by applying the new conception of reason as something that emerges by stages from sensibility by way of ‘imagination’, and by employing the new critique across a very broad canvas and multiplicity of historical contexts.
DONALD PHILLIP VERENE
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198239000
- eISBN:
- 9780191679810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198239000.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines the idea of autobiography in relation to Giambattista Vico's Autobiography. It provides informative remarks concerning the study of autobiography and the extent to which Vico ...
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This chapter examines the idea of autobiography in relation to Giambattista Vico's Autobiography. It provides informative remarks concerning the study of autobiography and the extent to which Vico has and has not figured in it. It discusses the particular idea that led to the publication of Vico's autobiography itself and suggests that the Vichian conception of autography is derived from the ancient problem of self-knowledge.Less
This chapter examines the idea of autobiography in relation to Giambattista Vico's Autobiography. It provides informative remarks concerning the study of autobiography and the extent to which Vico has and has not figured in it. It discusses the particular idea that led to the publication of Vico's autobiography itself and suggests that the Vichian conception of autography is derived from the ancient problem of self-knowledge.
DONALD PHILLIP VERENE
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198239000
- eISBN:
- 9780191679810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198239000.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines Saint Augustine's Confessions and Rene Descartes' Discourse on the Method in relation to Giambattista Vico's Autobiography. It investigates what light the Confessions might ...
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This chapter examines Saint Augustine's Confessions and Rene Descartes' Discourse on the Method in relation to Giambattista Vico's Autobiography. It investigates what light the Confessions might throw on how to understand Vico's project. It also discusses Vico's decision not to mention the Confessions in his own autobiography and his efforts to invent the true art of autobiography against the feigned autobiography of Descartes.Less
This chapter examines Saint Augustine's Confessions and Rene Descartes' Discourse on the Method in relation to Giambattista Vico's Autobiography. It investigates what light the Confessions might throw on how to understand Vico's project. It also discusses Vico's decision not to mention the Confessions in his own autobiography and his efforts to invent the true art of autobiography against the feigned autobiography of Descartes.
DONALD PHILLIP VERENE
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198239000
- eISBN:
- 9780191679810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198239000.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines Giambattista Vico's conception of his own philosophy based on his autobiography. It analyses Vico's life as a series of philosophical thoughts and suggests that pedagogy, law, ...
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This chapter examines Giambattista Vico's conception of his own philosophy based on his autobiography. It analyses Vico's life as a series of philosophical thoughts and suggests that pedagogy, law, and the search for a science of wisdom dominate his though and career. It evaluates Vico's New Science and argues that his telling of his own life is a verification of the principles of his own philosophy.Less
This chapter examines Giambattista Vico's conception of his own philosophy based on his autobiography. It analyses Vico's life as a series of philosophical thoughts and suggests that pedagogy, law, and the search for a science of wisdom dominate his though and career. It evaluates Vico's New Science and argues that his telling of his own life is a verification of the principles of his own philosophy.
DONALD PHILLIP VERENE
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198239000
- eISBN:
- 9780191679810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198239000.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter suggests that Giambattista Vico has employed in his autobiography one of the fundamental conceptions of his philosophy for the representation of himself and that his autobiography is a ...
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This chapter suggests that Giambattista Vico has employed in his autobiography one of the fundamental conceptions of his philosophy for the representation of himself and that his autobiography is a fable of himself. It explains that Vico considers the fable as the first true form of human speech and the form in which any basic concept of first truth about the human world can be stated. It contends that Vico's autobiographical narration draws upon the fable and form to convey the basic truths of his life as a philosopher.Less
This chapter suggests that Giambattista Vico has employed in his autobiography one of the fundamental conceptions of his philosophy for the representation of himself and that his autobiography is a fable of himself. It explains that Vico considers the fable as the first true form of human speech and the form in which any basic concept of first truth about the human world can be stated. It contends that Vico's autobiographical narration draws upon the fable and form to convey the basic truths of his life as a philosopher.
