Q0192
“The true is precisely what is made.” — Giambattista Vico (On the Most Ancient Wisdom of…)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians et al.. Theme: truth.
English
The true is precisely what is made.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians et al. and files it under Philosophy of History. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Giambattista Vico
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) was a Neapolitan philosopher of history and rhetoric who opposed Cartesian method as inadequate for the human world. The New Science (Scienza Nuova) proposes a genetic understanding of nations through myths, law, and language.
Interpretation
Vico's principle makes knowledge depend on making. His claim is that we can know a thing only if we have produced it, since we cannot grasp the internal structure of what we did not construct. He applies it to mathematics, which we make, and contrasts it with nature, which God made and therefore God fully knows. The principle is also the basis of his treatment of history, which he counts as made by human beings and so knowable in a way nature is not.
Why it matters
It sets a limit worth taking seriously: where you did not make it, your understanding is of patterns rather than of structure, and the two are often confused.
Concepts in this quote
- Truth
- Truth is among philosophy’s oldest problems: what it is for a claim to be true, and how truth relates to belief, language, and power.
- Knowledge
- Knowledge is the philosophical study of what we can justifiably claim to know—and where certainty ends.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Giambattista Vico. (n.d.). The true is precisely what is made. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0192
MLA: Giambattista Vico. “The true is precisely what is made..” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0192.
Chicago: Giambattista Vico. “The true is precisely what is made..” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0192.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “The true is precisely what is made.”?
The passage is attributed to Giambattista Vico, On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians et al.. The archive attributes this English wording to On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians et al. and files it under Philosophy of History. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Giambattista Vico mean by truth?
Correspondence, coherence, pragmatist, and deflationary theories compete. Ethics and politics ask who gets to define truth in public life. This passage enters that discussion through truth, knowledge.