Western philosophy 18th century philosophy (Enlightenment Philosophy)
Giambattista Vico
Name	Giambattista Vico
Birth	June 23, 1668 (Naples, Italy)
Death	January 23, 1744 (Naples, Italy)
School/tradition	Humanism
Influenced by	Plato, Francis Bacon, Machiavelli
Influenced	Hegel, Coleridge, Goethe, Marx, Croce, Joyce

Giambattista Vico or Giovanni Battista Vico (June 23, 1668 – January 23, 1744) was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist. Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century Events 1180 - First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan 1305 - The Flemish Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Events 393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor Year 1744 ( MDCCXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban KC QC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626 was an English Philosopher, Statesman, and author Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 21 October 1772 &ndash 25 July 1834) was an English Poet, Critic and philosopher ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer Benedetto Croce ( February 25, 1866 – November 20, 1952) was an Italian critic idealist Philosopher, and James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 &ndash 13 January 1941 was an Irish expatriate writer widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the Events 1180 - First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan 1305 - The Flemish Events 393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor Year 1744 ( MDCCXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it JURIST is an online legal news service hosted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, written by founder Professor Bernard Hibbitts and a staff of more than He is well known for his saying verum esse ipsum factum ("truth itself is constructed").

Biography

Born to a bookseller and the daughter of a carriage maker in Naples, Italy, Vico attended a series of grammar schools, but ill-health and dissatisfaction with Jesuit scholasticism led to home schooling. Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The Society of Jesus ( Latin: Societas Iesu, SJ and SI or SJ, SI) is a Catholic religious order Scholasticism was the dominant form of theology and philosophy in the Latin West in the Middle Ages, particularly in the 12th 13th and 14th centuries

After a bout of typhus in 1686, Vico accepted a tutoring position in Vatolla (a Frazione of the comune of Perdifumo), south of Salerno, that would last for nine years. Typhus is any of several similar diseases caused by Louse -borne bacteria A frazione, in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a Comune; for other Administrative In Italy, the comune, (plural comuni) is the basic Administrative division of both provinces and regions and may be properly approximated in Perdifumo is a town and Comune in the Province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-western Italy Salerno is a town in southern Italy, capital of the province of the same name in the region of Campania. In 1699, he married a childhood friend, Teresa Destito, and took a chair in rhetoric at the University of Naples. Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice The University of Naples Federico II (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II is a university located in Naples, Italy. Throughout his career, Vico would aspire to, but never attain, the more respectable chair of jurisprudence. In 1734, however, he was appointed royal historiographer by Charles III, king of Naples, and was afforded a salary far surpassing that of his professorship. Charles III ( January 20, 1716 – December 14, 1788) was King of Spain 1700–88 (as Carlos III King of Naples and Vico retained the chair of rhetoric until ill-health forced him to retire in 1741.

Major works and their reception

Vico is best known for his verum factum principle, first formulated in 1710 as part of his De Italorum Sapientia. The principle states that truth is verified through creation or invention and not, as per Descartes, through observation: “The criterion and rule of the true is to have made it. Accordingly, our clear and distinct idea of the mind cannot be a criterion of the mind itself, still less of other truths. For while the mind perceives itself, it does not make itself. ” This criterion for truth would later shape the history of civilization in Vico’s opus, the Scienza Nuova (The New Science, 1725), since he would argue that civil life — like mathematics — is wholly constructed. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and

Relying on a complex etymology, Vico argues in the Scienza Nuova that civilization develops in a recurring cycle (ricorso) of three ages: the divine, the heroic, and the human. Each age exhibits distinct political and social features and can be characterized by master tropes or figures of language. See also Figure of speech In linguistics trope is a rhetorical Figure of speech that consists of a play on words i A figure of speech, sometimes The giganti of the divine age rely on metaphor to compare, and thus comprehend, human and natural phenomena. Metaphor (from the Greek: μεταφορά - metaphora, meaning "transfer" is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects In the heroic age, metonymy and synecdoche support the development of feudal or monarchic institutions embodied by idealized figures. In Rhetoric, metonymy (mɨˈtɒnɨmi is the use of a word for a concept or object associated with the concept/object originally denoted by the word Synecdoche is taken from Greek sinekdohi (συνεκδοχή meaning "simultaneous understanding" (si-nek-duh-kee (pronounced /sɪˈnɛkdoˌki/ Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed A monarchy is a Form of government in which supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in an individual who is the Head of state, often for life or The final age is characterized by popular democracy and reflection via irony; in this epoch, the rise of rationality leads to barbarie della reflessione or barbarism of reflection, and civilization descends once more into the poetic era. Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system Irony is a literary or Rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or Discordance between what one says or does and what one means or Rationality as a term is related to the idea of Reason, a word which following Webster's may be derived as much from older terms referring to Taken together, the recurring cycle of three ages — common to every nation — constitutes for Vico a storia ideale eterna or ideal eternal history.

Vico’s major work was poorly received during his own life but has since inspired a cadre of famous thinkers and artists, including Benedetto Croce, James Joyce, Bertrand Russell, Samuel Beckett, Isaiah Berlin, Erich Auerbach, Northrop Frye, Harold Bloom, Edward Said, Marshall McLuhan, Thomas Berry, and Robert Anton Wilson. En cadre is a military expression for a group around whom a unit is formed or a training staff Benedetto Croce ( February 25, 1866 – November 20, 1952) was an Italian critic idealist Philosopher, and James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 &ndash 13 January 1941 was an Irish expatriate writer widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the Bertrand Arthur William Russell 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970 was a British Philosopher, Historian Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989 was an Irish Writer, Dramatist and poet Sir Isaiah Berlin, OM (6 June 1909 &ndash 5 November 1997 was a philosopher and historian of ideas regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the twentieth century Erich Auerbach ( November 9, 1892 &ndash October 13, 1957) was a German philologist and comparative scholar Herman Northrop Frye, CC, MA (Oxon, DD, DLitt, FRSC ( July 14, 1912 &ndash January 23, 1991 Harold Bloom' (born July 11, 1930) is a Literary critic. Bloom defended 19th-century Romantic poets at a time when their reputations Edward Wadie Saïd MRSL ( إدوارد وديع سعيد,; 1 November 1935 &ndash 25 September Reverend Fr Thomas Berry CP (born November 9, 1914) is a Catholic priest of the Passionist order cultural historian and ecotheologian Robert Anton Wilson or RAW (born Robert Edward Wilson, January 18, 1932 &ndash January 11, 2007) was an American Later his work was received more favourably as in the case of Lord Monboddo to whom he was compared in a modern treatise. James Burnett Lord Monboddo ( October 25, 1714 - May 26, 1799) was a Scottish Judge, scholar of language evolution and ^[1]

For Ernst von Glasersfeld, Giambattista Vico is "the first true constructivist" (in An Introduction to Radical Constructivism). Ernst von Glasersfeld (born 1917 in Munich) is a Philosopher, a cybernetician and is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the Constructivist epistemology is an epistemological perspective in Philosophy about the nature of scientific knowledge held by many philosophers of science

Vichian rhetoric and humanism

Vico’s version of rhetoric is the result of both his humanist and pedagogic concerns. Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal Pedagogy (ˈpɛdəgɒdʒi or paedagogy is the Art or Science of being a Teacher. In De Studiorum Ratione, presented at the commencement ceremonies of 1708, Vico argued that whoever “intends a career in public life, whether in the courts, the senate, or the pulpit” should be taught to “master the art of topics and defend both sides of a controversy, be it on nature, man, or politics, in a freer and brighter style of expression, so he can learn to draw on those arguments which are most probable and have the greatest degree of verisimilitude. ” As Royal Professor of Latin Eloquence, it was Vico’s task to prepare students for higher studies in law and jurisprudence. His lessons thus dealt with the formal aspects of the rhetorical canon, including arrangement and delivery. Yet as the above oration also makes clear, Vico chose to emphasize the Aristotelian connection of rhetoric with dialectic or logic. In classical Philosophy, dialectic (διαλεκτική is controversy the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments respectively advocating Propositions Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. In his lectures and throughout the body of his work, Vico's rhetoric begins from argumentation. Argumentation theory, or argumentation, embraces the arts and sciences of civil debate Dialogue, conversation and persuasion studying rules of Inference Probability and circumstance are thus central, and invention – the appeal to topics or loci – supersedes axioms derived through pure reasoning. Probability is the likelihood or chance that something is the case or will happen An invention is a new form composition of matter device or Process. In traditional Logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be either self-evident, or subject Reasoning is the cognitive process of looking for Reasons for beliefs conclusions actions or feelings

Vico’s recovery of ancient wisdom, his emphasis on the importance of civic life, and his professional obligations place him firmly in the humanist tradition. As such, he would be compelled to address the privileging of reason in what he called the “geometrical method” of Descartes and the Port-Royal logicians. The Convent of Port-Royal was built in Paris in 1626 as an off-shoot of Port-Royal-des-Champs, the stronghold of Jansenist thought in France Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference.

Response to the Cartesian method

As he relates in his autobiography, Vico returned to Naples from Vatolla to find “the physics of Descartes at the height of its renown among the established men of letters. ” Developments in both metaphysics and the natural sciences abounded as the result of Cartesianism. Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science Widely disseminated by the Port Royal Logic of Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole, Descartes’ method was rooted in verification: the only path to truth, and thus knowledge, was through axioms derived from observation. Antoine Arnauld, ( February 6, 1612 - August 6, 1694) &mdash le Grand as contemporaries called him to distinguish him from his Pierre Nicole ( 1625 - November 16, 1695) was one of the most distinguished of the French Jansenists Born in Chartres Descartes’ insistence that the “sure and indubitable” (or, "clear and distinct") should form the basis of reasoning had an obvious impact on the prevailing views of logic and discourse. Studies in rhetoric — indeed all studies concerned with civic discourse and the realm of probable truths — met with increasing disdain.

Vico’s humanism and professional concerns prompted an obvious response that he would develop throughout the course of his writings: the realms of verifiable truth and human concern share only a slight overlap, yet reasoning is required in equal measure in both spheres. One of the clearest and earliest forms of this argument is available in the De Italorum Sapientia, where Vico argues that “to introduce geometrical method into practical life is ‘like trying to go mad with the rules of reason,’ attempting to proceed by a straight line among the tortuosities of life, as though human affairs were not ruled by capriciousness, temerity, opportunity, and chance. Similarly, to arrange a political speech according to the precepts of geometrical method is equivalent to stripping it of any acute remarks and to uttering nothing but pedestrian lines of argument. ” Vico’s position here and in later works is not that the Cartesian method is irrelevant, but that its application cannot be extended to the civic sphere. Instead of confining reason to a string of verifiable axioms, Vico suggests (along with the ancients) that appeals to phronêsis or practical wisdom must also be made, as do appeals to the various components of persuasion that comprise rhetoric. Phronesis ( Greek: φρόνησις in Aristotle 's Nicomachean Ethics is the virtue of moral thought usually translated "practical wisdom" Persuasion is a form of Social influence. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea attitude or action by rational and symbolic (though not always Vico would reproduce this argument consistently throughout his works, and would use it as a central tenet of the Scienza Nuova.

Rhetoric in the Scienza Nuova

Principj di Scienza Nuova - title page of 1744 edition.

In 1720, Vico began work on the Scienza Nuova – his self-proclaimed masterpiece – as part of a treatise on universal law. In Law and Ethics, universal law or universal principle refers to concept of legal Legitimacy whereby those principles and rules for governing Although a full volume was originally to be sponsored by Cardinal Corsini (the future Pope Clement XII), Vico was forced to finance the publication himself after the Cardinal pleaded financial difficulty and withdrew his patronage. See Corsini for other uses of that name Pope Clement XII ( April 7, 1652 &ndash February 6, The first edition of the New Science appeared in 1725, and a second, reworked version was published in 1730; neither was well received during Vico’s lifetime.

Vico’s humanism, his interest in classical rhetoric and philology, and his response to Descartes contribute to the philosophical foundations for the second Scienza Nuova. See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology" Through an elaborate Latin etymology, Vico establishes not only the distinguishing features of first humans, but also how early civilization developed a sensus communis or collective sense. Beginning with the utterances characteristic of the giganti or early humans, Vico concludes that “first, or vulgar, wisdom was poetic in nature. ” This observation is not an aesthetic one, but rather points to the capacity for early humans to make meaning via comparison and to reach a communal understanding of their surroundings. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called Thus, the metaphors that define the poetic age also represent the first civic discourse and, like the eloquence of Vico’s own age, engender a civic reality. The poetic principle held, though in altered form, for subsequent formative ages, including early Greek, Roman, and European civilizations. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC

While the transfer from divine to heroic to human ages is, for Vico, marked by shifts in the tropological nature of language, the inventional aspect of the poetic principle remains constant. See also Figure of speech In linguistics trope is a rhetorical Figure of speech that consists of a play on words i When referring to “poets”, Vico intends to evoke the original Greek sense of “creators”. In the Scienza Nuova, then, the verum factum principle first put forth in De Italorum Sapientia remains central. As such, the notion of topics as the loci or places of invention (put forth by Aristotle and developed throughout classical rhetoric) serves as the foundation for truth, and thus, as the underlying principle of sensus communis and civic discourse. The development of laws that shape the social and political character of each age is informed as much by master tropes as by those topics deemed acceptable in each era. Thus, for the rudimentary civilization of the divine age, sensory topics are employed to develop laws applicable on an individual basis. These laws expand as metonymy and synecdoche enable notions of sovereign rule in the heroic age; accordingly, acceptable topics expand to include notions of class and division. Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions (or stratification) between individuals or groups in Societies or Cultures. In the final, human age, the reflection that enables popular democracy requires appeals to any and all topics to achieve a common, rational law that is universally applicable. The development of civilization in Vico’s storia ideale eternal, then, is rooted in the first canon of rhetoric, as invention via loci shapes both the creation of and discourse about civil life. The Western canon is a term used to denote a canon of books and more widely music and art, that has been the most influential in

Line note references

References

• Encyclopædia Britannica entry
• Fabiani, Paolo "The Philosophy of Imagination in Vico and Malebranche". F.U.P. (Florence UP), 2002.
• Gianturco, Elio, trans. Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (30 September 1715 - 3 August 1780 was a French Philosopher. James Burnett Lord Monboddo ( October 25, 1714 - May 26, 1799) was a Scottish Judge, scholar of language evolution and De Nostri Temporis Studiorum Ratione (On the Study Methods of our Times). 1709. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1990.
• Goetsch, James. Vico’s Axioms: The Geometry of the Human World. . New Haven: Yale UP, 1995.
• Mooney, Michael. Vico in the Tradition of Rhetoric. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1985.
• Pompa, Leon. Vico: A Study of the New Science. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry

Bibliography

• Bedani, Gino. Vico Revisited: Orthodoxy, Naturalism and Science in the Scienza Nuova. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1989.
• Berlin, Isaiah. Vico and Herder: Two Studies in the History of Ideas. London: Hogarth, 1976.
• Colilli, Paul. Vico and the Archives of Hermetic Reason. Welland, Ont. : Editions Soleil, 2004.
• Croce, Benedetto. The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico. Trans. R. G. Collingwood. London: Howard Latimer, 1913.
• Danesi, Marcel. Vico, Metaphor, and the Origin of Language. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993
• Fisch, Max, and Thomas Bergin, trans. Vita di Giambattista Vico (The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico). 1735-41. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1963.
• _________. Scienza nuova seconda (The New Science of Giambattista Vico). 1730/1744. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1948.
• Grassi, Ernesto. Vico and Humanism: Essays on Vico, Heidegger, and Rhetoric. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.
• Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake. Viking 1939.
• Levine, Joseph. Giambattista Vico and the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns. Journal of the History of Ideas 52. 1(1991): 55-79.
• Lilla, Mark. "G. B. Vico: The Making of an Anti-Modern. " Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
• Mazzotta, Giuseppe. "The New Map of the World: The Poetic Philosophy of Giambattista Vico. " Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
• Miner, Robert. "Vico, Genealogist of Modernity. " Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002.
• Nicolini, Fausto, ed. Opera di G. B. Vico. Bari: Laterza, 1911-41.
• Palmer, L. M. , trans. De Antiquissima Italorum Sapientia ex Linguae Originibus Eruenda Librir Tres (On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians Unearthed from the Origins of the Latin Language). 1710. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1988.
• Pinton, Girogio, and Arthur W. Shippee, trans. Institutiones Oratoriae (The Art of Rhetoric). 1711-1741. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi B. V. , 1984.
• Pompa, Leon, trans. Scienza Nuova (The First New Science). 1725. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.
• Schaeffer, John. Sensus Communis: Vico, Rhetoric, and the Limits of Relativism. Durham: Duke UP, 1990.
• Verene, Donald. Vico's Science of Imagination. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1981.
• Verene, Molly Black "Vico: A Bibliography of Works in English from 1884 to 1994. " Philosophy Documentation Center, 1994.
• Vico, Giambattista. "On Humanistic Education," trans. Giorgio A. Pinton and Arthur W. Shippee. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993.
• Vico, Giambattista. "On the Study Methods of Our Time," trans. Elio Gianturco. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1990.
• Vico, Giambattista. "The New Science of Giambattista Vico, trans. Thomas G. Bergin and Max H. Fixch. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1968.

See also

• René Descartes
• Constructivist epistemology

External links

• Entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Entry in the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory
• Institute for Vico studies
• the web center on vico's philosophy
• Journal for the Institute of Vico studies
• Essay on Vico's Sensus Communis
• Verene, Donald Phillip. Constructivist epistemology is an epistemological perspective in Philosophy about the nature of scientific knowledge held by many philosophers of science Essay on Vico's humanism, archived from Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Vico's Poetic Philosophy within Europe's Cultural Identity, Emanuel L. Paparella