Overview
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. Largely neglected in life, he later inspired historicists and anthropologists. Handbook dates: 1668–1744. He taught rhetoric at the University of Naples.
Main ideas
Verum factum: the true and the made convert—humans know history because they make it. Nations rise through ages of gods, heroes, and men, with possible ricorso after decline. Myths are serious modes of early poetic wisdom, not mere errors. Philology and philosophy must unite to interpret institutions. Cartesian clear ideas miss the certainty proper to civil things. Providence guides history without erasing human making.
Major works
- The New Science
- On the Study Methods of Our Time
- On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians
- Autobiography
Legacy
Vico became a founder for philosophies of history, hermeneutics, and cultural anthropology. Joyce and others mined the New Science literarily. He offers a classic alternative to ahistorical rationalism.