The Italian scholar Giovanni Battista Vico is widely viewed as the first modern philosopher of history, a judgment largely based on his obscure 1744 masterpiece, New Science. In this new study Mark Lilla complicates this picture by presenting Vico as one of the most troubling of anti-modern thinkers. By combing Vico's neglected early writings on metaphysics and jurisprudence, Lilla reveals the philosopher's deep reservations about the modern outlook and shows how his science of history grew out of (...) these very doubts. In works such as the untranslated Universal Right (1720-1722), a treatise on natural law, Vico emerges as a profoundly political and theological thinker who contrasted the authoritative traditions of an idealized Rome against the corrupting skepticism endemic in modern life. Vico explicitly blamed this skepticism on the founders of modern philosophy, particularly Descartes. Placed in the context of his critique of skepticism, Vico's "new science" of history appears in a wholly new light. Though modern in form, it can be seen here for what it was: a pessimistic vindication of divine authority directed against the freedom and reason that characterize the modern age. This first truly comprehensive introduction to Vico ties his concerns for authority, politics, and civil religion to his theory of history. As such, it raises provocative questions about the subsequent intellectual development of the anti-modern tradition as it relates to the historical and social sciences of our time. It is a brilliant antidote to the "standard" reading of Vico and will transform studies of his work. (shrink)

RESUMO Este artigo pretende mostrar o fundamento geométrico-matemático que permitiu a Giambattista Vico estabelecer um vínculo entre a criação humana e a criação divina. A pesquisa centrou-se no uso formal que o autor fez das ciências matemáticas para compreender o mundo. Considerando o pitagorismo presente na filosofía viquiana até 1710, o esforço busca mostrar a sobrevivência deste nos trabalhos posteriores do autor. Para isso, destacamos o novo papel que a geometria cumpriu inteligentemente na storia ideale eterna da Providência na (...) "Scienza Nuova". ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to show the geometric-mathematical basis that allowed Giambattista Vico to establish a bond between human and divine creation, focusing on the formal use of mathematical sciences in his comprehension of the world. Considering the Pythagorean character of his philosophy, up to year 1710, this study reveals its survival in Vico's later works by stressing the role of geometry in the witty understanding of Providence's storia ideale eterna in the "Scienza Nuova". (shrink)

El momento donde los humanos caen en el estado de "bestioni" ("grandes bestias") es pensado claramente por G. B. Vico como el de una segunda caída: una caída en lo anterior a todos los vínculos, ya sea entre aquellos que existen entre los humanos mismos o entre aquellos con la divinidad. El Diritto universale y la Scienza Nuova se dan entonces como tarea el pensar las modalidades (simbólicas, poéticas, políticas…) del porvenir del humano, bajo el fondo de una reactivación (...) de la fuerza de lo verdadero ("vis veri") y de una relación con la divinidad. Así se ve aparecer el espacio familiar, luego el espacio político con sus diversas disposiciones sucesivas, sin que por eso desaparezca la dimensión animal del humano. The moment when humans fall into a state of "bestioni" ("big beasts") is clearly envisioned by G. B. Vico as a second fall: a fall into something previous to all bonding, be it among humans themselves or with the divinity. The Diritto universale and the Scienza Nuova assume then the thinking of new forms (symbolic, poetic, political…) of human's future, under the reactivation of truth as a force ("vis veri") and a relationship with the divinity. Thus emerges the family space, then the politics space with its successive and diverse dispositions, but always keeping the human's animal dimension. (shrink)

The Latin text and the translation of The Conspiracy of the Prince of Macchia -- The making of the narration -- Authorities and documents of the narrative.

En este discurso, F. Acri, con un estilo claro, didáctico y personal, comenta los textos de Vico en los que se fundamentan sus tres teorías sobre las ideas: una que las presenta como paradigmas o arquetipos, otra como asociaciones de elementos, y otra, la de la Idea única en forma teológica, la más “viquiana” según el autor, por ser la mejor explicada y aplicada. Las tres surgen y se mantienen en paralelo a lo largo de toda la obra del (...) napolitano, reflejando su ideología, sus dudas, sus contradicciones, y las posibles conciliaciones entre ellas para comprender las sabidurías divina, heroica y humana. (shrink)