The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico
The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico

Author: Giambattista Vico

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2016-02-15

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1501703005

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The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico is significant both as a source of insight into the influences on the eighteenth-century philosopher's intellectual development and as one of the earliest and most sophisticated examples of philosophical autobiography. Referring to himself in the third person, Vico records the course of his life and the influence that various thinkers had on the development of concepts central to his mature work. Beyond its relevance to the development of the New Science, the Autobiography is also of interest for the light it sheds on Italian culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.Still regarded by many as the best English-language translation of this classic work, the Cornell edition was widely lauded when first published in 1944. Wrote the Saturday Review of Literature: "Here was something new in the art of self-revelation. Vico wrote of his childhood, the psychological influences to which he was subjected, the social conditions under which he grew up and received an education and evolved his own way of thinking. It was so outstanding a piece of work that it was held up as a model, which it still is."

Vico's Uncanny Humanism
Vico's Uncanny Humanism

Author: Sandra Rudnick Luft

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780801441080

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Sandra Luft, in her ambitious postmodernist reading of Vico's profoundly influential New Science, asserts the "strangeness" of texts that struggle to understand human existence outside the assumptions of traditional humanism. One of her central arguments is that Vico as a thinker moved toward such an alien understanding. Despite his warning against the tyranny of "familiar conceits," his work is commonly read within the traditional philosophic assumptions of the West--assumptions that she shows cannot contain nor explain the work's novelty.The book includes extensive comparisons of Vico with Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida. Luft does not regard Vico as a precursor of the postmodern, which she sees as a recurring perspective in the West, one critical of the assumptions underlying traditional humanist conceptions of human nature and knowledge. Luft finds anachronistic not the question of Vico's affinity to postmodern ideas, but rather his identification with traditional humanism and modernism by modern scholars. Luft's reading brings to the fore radical existential issues in New Science: its concern with origins, with the power of language and social practices, and with its critique of human subjectivity. That perspective makes Vico interesting and important for a wide circle of contemporary readers.

Vico's "New Science"
Vico's

Author: Donald Phillip Verene

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2016-02-11

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1501701851

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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 Comte at a comprehensive science of human society and the most profound analysis of the philosophy of history prior to Hegel. Despite the fundamental importance of the New Science, there has been no philosophical commentary of the text in any language, until now. Written by the noted Vico scholar Donald Phillip Verene, this commentary 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. Following the structure of the text scrupulously, Verene 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. He 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, ideal for both beginners and specialists.

Vico's Axioms
Vico's Axioms

Author: James Robert Goetsch

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1995-01-01

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 9780300062724

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According to Goetsch, Vico proposes that we abandon the alliance between logic and metaphysics and instead form one between logic and the rhetorical and poetical conceptions of human understanding that inform the human community. In the way Vico revives the ancient sense of rhetoric found in Aristotle, who stated that logic and rhetoric are counterparts. Vico's philosophical system is best exemplified by the 114 axioms at the base of his New Science. These axioms, which range over a puzzling variety of subjects, do not follow a logical or geometric model in the conventional sense, making it hard to account for Vico's claim that he thinks in the "geometric manner." Goetsch asserts, however, that they are used by Vico to express what Aristotle called maxims - "thoughts worth thinking" - which establish the fundamental points necessary to speak about human realities.

Vico's Cultural History
Vico's Cultural History

Author: Harold Stone

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 9004247270

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A study of the cultural world of Giambattista Vico, one of the most creative social theorists of the eighteenth century. Based on extensive manuscript as well as printed materials, and relying on the methods of book and publishing history, this volume describes Vico's intellectual community. Special attention is paid to the interaction between scholars and Naples' vibrant operatic and artistic community. The first part of the book investigates a controversy concerning an inquisitorial investigation, Neapolitan travel literature, the papers of a scientific academy, and the patronage system for book publication. The second part describes the cultural context of Vico's writings and especially the three editions of The New Science. This work explains the accomplishments that made Naples one of the great cultural centers of the early Enlightenment.

Vico's Science of Imagination
Vico's Science of Imagination

Author: Donald Phillip Verene

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 1981

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9780801499722

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A full interpretation of Giambattista Vico's thought, based primarily on his major work, the New Science, and on his earlier Latin writings.

Vico's New Science of Ancient Signs
Vico's New Science of Ancient Signs

Author: Jürgen Trabant

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-04-29

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 100044824X

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Jürgen Trabant reads the profound insights into human semiosis contained in Vico's 'sematology' as both a spirited rejection of Cartesian philosophy and an early critique of enlightened logocentricism. Sean Ward's translation makes this work available to an English-reading audience for the first time.

Vico's New Science of the Intersubjective World
Vico's New Science of the Intersubjective World

Author: Vittorio Hösle

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess

Published: 2016-11-15

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0268100314

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Among the classics of the history of philosophy, the Scienza nuova (New Science) by Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) was largely neglected and generally misunderstood during the author's lifetime. From the nineteenth century onwards Vico’s views found a wider audience, and today his influence is widespread in the humanities and social sciences. The New Science is often taught in courses at colleges and universities, both in philosophy and Italian departments and in general humanities courses. Despite the excellent English translations of this enigmatic book and numerous studies in English of Vico, many sections of the work remain challenging to the modern reader. Vico's New Science of the Intersubjective World offers both an in-depth analysis of all the important ideas of the book and an evaluation of their contribution to our present understanding of the social world. In the first chapter, Vittorio Hösle examines Vico’s life, sources, and writings. The second and third chapters discuss the concerns and problems of the Scienza nuova. The fourth chapter traces the broader history of Vico’s reception. Hösle facilitates the understanding of many passages in the work as well as the overarching structure of its claims, which are often dispersed over many sections. Hösle reformulates Vico’s vision in such a way that it is not only of historical interest but may inspire ongoing debates about the nature of the humanities and social sciences as well as many other issues on which Vico sheds light, from the relation of poetry and poetics to the development of law. This book will prepare students and scholars for a precise study of the Scienza nuova, equipping them with the necessary categories and context and familiarizing them with the most important problems in the critical debate on Vico's philosophy.

New Science
New Science

Author: Giambattista Vico

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 1999-04-29

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 014190769X

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Barely acknowledged in his lifetime, the New Science of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) is an astonishingly perceptive and ambitious attempt to decipher the history, mythology and laws of the ancient world. Discarding the Renaissance notion of the classical as an idealised model for the modern, it argues that the key to true understanding of the past lies in accepting that the customs and emotional lives of ancient Greeks and Romans, Egyptians, Jews and Babylonians were radically different from our own. Along the way, Vico explores a huge variety of topics, ranging from physics to poetics, money to monsters, and family structures to the Flood. Marking a crucial turning-point in humanist thinking, New Science has remained deeply influential since the dawn of Romanticism, inspiring the work of Karl Marx and even influencing the framework for Joyce's Finnegan's Wake.