Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Giambattista Vico, in his work The New Science of Giambattista Vico, has created a complex and wide-ranging examination of sociology, history, politics and literature which might most fairly be termed "poetic metaphysics" (116). Vico is not primarily intent on having his "new science" be understood as he is intent on maintaining his own feverish state of mind as he describes the world and reality as he sees it. Instead of simply and clearly explaining his work and the basic ideas behind it, he undertakes in his Introduction to explain a complex picture full of symbols which is meant "to serve as introduction to the work" (3). It is not unfair to conclude that Vico does not want to be understood as much as he wants to impress or even confound. He makes monumental assumptions which no philosopher using the scientific method on inquiry could ever with good conscience make. This is why his work is most accurately described as "poetic" metaphysics. He is far more the poet, or the mythologist, or even the outright mystic, than he is a true philosopher or metaphysician who moves step-by-rational-step from the beginning of a scientific analysis to the end. As we read in his Introduction, for example:

The ray of the divine providence illuminating a convex jewel which adorns the breast of metaphysic denotes the clean and pure heart which metaphysic must have, not dirty or befouled with pride or spirit or vileness of bodily pleasures, by the first of which Zeno was led to put fate, and by the second Epicurus to put chance, in the place of divine providence (5).

Due to the fact that his work is far more poetry than philosophy, Vico is more concerned with the symbolic and even mythical aspects of social theory than he is with concrete applications of that theory. The closest he comes to describing his intentions in clear or simple terms is in the final paragraph of his Introduction:

The entire engraving represents the three worlds in...

Page 1 of 6 Next >

More on The New Science of Giambattista Vico...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
The New Science of Giambattista Vico. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 12:17, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681435.html