Giambattista Vico s The New Science - Notes Intellectual Biography Giambattista Vico is often credited with the invention of the philosophy of history. Specifically, he was the first to take seriously the possibility that people had fundamentally different schema of thought in different historical eras. Thus, Vico became the first to chart a course of history that depended on the way the structure of thought changed over time. To illustrate the difference between modern thought and ancient thought, Vico developed a remarkable theory of the imagination. This theory led to an account of myth based on ritual and imitation that would resemble some twentieth century anthropological theories. He also developed an account of the development of human institutions that contrasts sharply with his contemporaries in social contract theory. Vico's account centered on the class struggle that prefigures nineteenth and twentieth century discussions. Vico did not achieve much fame during his lifetime or after. Nevertheless, a wide variety of important thinkers were influenced by Vico s writings. Some of the more notable names on this list are Johann Gottfried von Herder, Karl Marx, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, James Joyce, Benedetto Croce, R. G. Collingwood and Max Horkheimer. References to Vico s works can be found in the more contemporary writings of Jürgen Habermas, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Alasdair MacIntyre and many others. There is no question that his work is difficult to grasp. Vico s style is challenging. Further, he is heavily influenced by a number of traditions that many philosophers may find unfamiliar: the natural law tradition of thinkers like Grotius; the Roman rhetorical tradition of authors like Quintillian; and the current science and anthropology of his day. Nevertheless, Vico s theories on culture, language, politics and religion are deeply insightful and have excited the imaginations of those who have read him. General Information Most influential work of Vicos First published in 1725 Work was obscure and was largely ignored in it s time The first comprehensive philosophy of history even before the invention of the phrase Man and his present as the point of reference Because of the indefinite nature of the human mind, wherever it is lost in ignorance, man makes himself the the measure of all things (p.56). It is another property of the human mind that whenever men can form no idea of distant and unknown things, they judge them by what is familiar and at hand (p. 56). These axioms produced what Vico called the Conceit of Nations and the Coneceit of the Scholars
The Two Conceits Conceit of Nations: Every nation, according to Vico, whether Greek or barbarian, has had the same conceit that it, before all other nations, invented the comforts of human life and its remembered history goes back to the very beginning of the world (p.55). Conceit of the Scholars: To this conceit of the nations there may be added that of the scholars, who will have it that whatever they know is as old as the world (p.55). Verum Factum: the central principle But in the night of thick darkness enveloping the earliest antiquity, so remote form ourselves, there shines the eternal and never-failing light of a truth beyond all question: that the world of civil society has certainly been made by men, and that its principles are therefore to be found within the modifications of our own human mind. Whoever reflects on this cannot bout marvel that the philosophers should have bent all their energies to the study of the world of nature, which, since God made it, He alone knows, and that they should have neglected the study of the world of nations or civil world, which, since men made it, men could hope to know (p. 85) Methodological Philosophy of History Linguistic and Psychological: Language is important for its usage reflects the themes of ages in history and its use in the Myths reflect the manner in which the ancients view and understand their world (from with themselves as the point of reference) and is therefore important as a source for historical understanding. Importance of Jurisprudence: Laws reflect the character of governments, show the use of language and myth, and plot the development of rationality Economic and Political: Movement from age to age is based on the development of consciousness as product of the interactions between man and nature, and man and man in the context of the class struggles Historical ages (gods, heroes, and men) can be identified from investigation of these components and Historians must place themselves within these proper vantage points to avoid the aforementioned two conceits Age of the Gods (or the age of poetry) The first nature, by an illusion of imagination, which is most robust in those weakest in reasoning power, was a poetic or creative nature which we may be allowed to call divine, as it ascribed to physical thing the being of substances animated by gods, assigning the gods to them according to its idea of each. This nature was that of the theological poets, who were the earliest wise men in all gentile nations, when all the gentile nations were founded on the belief which of them had certain gods of its own. Furthermore it was a nature all fierce and cruel; but, through that same error of their imagination, men had a terrible of the gods whom they themselves had created. From this period there remained two eternal properties: one, that religion is the only means powerful enough the
restrain the fierceness of peoples; and the other, that religions prosper when those who preside over them are themselves inwardly reverent (p. 302) Age of Heroes (age of hierarchy) The second was the heroic nature, believed by the heroes themselves to be of divine origin; for, since they believed that the gods made everything, they held themselves to be children of Jove, as having been generated under his auspices. Being thus of the human [not bestial] species, they regarded their heroism as including the natural nobility in virtue of which they were the princes of the human race. And this natural nobility they made their boast over those who had fled from the infamous and bestial communism, to save themselves from the strife it entailed, and had taken refuge in their asylums; for, since they had come thither without gods, the heroes regarded them as beasts (p. 302) Age of Men (age of equality, democracy, enlightenment) The third was human nature, intelligent and hence modest, benign and reasonable, recognizing for law of conscience, reason, and duty (p. 302) The third are dutiful taught by one s own sense of civil duty (p. 303) The third is the human law dictated by fully developed human reason (p. 304) The third are human governments, in which, in virtue of the equality of the intelligent nature which is the proper nature of man, all are accounted equal under the laws, inasmuch as all are born free ill their cities (p. 305) The Three Age in Summary
The Historical Cyle Age of the Gods culminates with Men prepared to face Nature because they too are connected to the divine. Results in the leadership of Heroes. Age of Heroes culminates with the subjects beginning to be conscious of equality especially in relation to their supposed divine leaders. Results in freedom (mentally first) Age of Men culminates with the chaos and anarchy produced by too much freedom, equality, relativism, democracy and rationalism. Results in the longing for total order. Practical Application Applicable on to grand historical schemes Applicable only to civilizations that already experienced a rise and a fall Linguistic nature superseded by historical hermeneutics (Vico argues that thinking is always rooted in a given cultural context. This context is historically developed, and, moreover, intrinsically related to ordinary language, evolving from the stage of myth and poetry to the later phases of theoretical abstraction and technical vocabularies. To understand oneself is thus to understand the genealogy of one's own intellectual horizon. This grants a new urgency to the historical sciences. Moreover, it offers a model of truth and objectivity that differs from those entertained by the natural sciences. The historian does not encounter a field of idealized and putatively subject-independent objects, but investigates a world that is, fundamentally, her own. There is no clear distinction between the scientist and the object of her studies. Understanding and self-understanding cannot be kept apart. Self-understanding does not culminate in law-like propositions. Appealing to tact and common sense, it is oriented towards who we are, living, as we do, within a given historical context of practice and understanding.) (Ranke, Droysen, Dilthey, etc.) Psychologistic tendency superseded by Freud Development of consciousness in history superseded by Hegel Theory of class struggle and economy superseded by Marx Philosophical argument on the role of history in creativity and strength already superseded by Nietzsche (Übermensch, Those with the longest memories shall inherit the future. ) Vico s work was a precursor to all these strands, and therefore prophetic and well worth the effort. Conclusion Vico s New Science fell on deaf ears when it was published, but it was as he proclaimed a work so advanced for its time. It may have been superseded by other works, but it cannot be denied that this single volume preceded the works of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud by several decades.
Additional Material Vico as Anti-Cartesian and Anti-Enlightenment Vico is rightfully cast as a counter-enlightenment thinker. In the face of the Enlightenment emphasis on doing natural science through the search for clear and distinct ideas, Vico saw himself as a defender of rhetoric and humanism. Many of Vico s ideas are most easily grasped through a contrast with Cartesian rationalism and specifically Descartes emphasis on the geometric method. However, it is unclear exactly the extent to which Vico disagreed with the overall project of the Enlightenment. In a number of respects, Vico engaged in the same type of philosophical investigations as other eighteenth-century thinkers. He calls his main work a 'science', and claims Bacon as a major influence. Vico searched for a universal mental dictionary, and his science may be seen as its own type of encyclopedia. Further, recent scholarship suggests that Vico was heavily influenced by Malebranche. So while there is absolutely no question that Vico remains a staunch defender of ancient rhetoric, how much of the rest of the Enlightenment he rejects is a question. The main debate between Vico and Descartes is over the value of the imagination and of rhetoric. In the opening of the Discourse on Method, Descartes rejects rhetoric and culture as sources of certainty. This implies, for Descartes, that there really is no value for these institutions. If one can state an idea clearly, then there is no need for rhetoric to defend it. While Descartes view was probably more subtle than this, as Cartesian science swept into Naples people began teaching children math and critique at the expense of training imagination. The Three Principles of History: Religion, Marriage and Burial Vico posits that before human society there were giants roaming the earth who had no ability to check their violent passions. Eventually, a thunder strike occurred that was so violent it caused some of the giants to stop their passionate wanderings. These giants felt a fear that was unique because unlike a natural danger, it was produced by a cause the giants did not recognize (NS 377, 504). Since the giants did not understand the cause of the fear, other than the sky, they took what they knew (which was their own passion) and attributed it to a giant who lived in the sky. This gave birth to Jove, the first imaginative universal, which is discussed below. Out of this terror, giants felt shame for the first time. Specifically, they were ashamed about copulating randomly and out in the open. Vico writes, So it came about that each of them would drag one woman into his cave and would keep her there in perpetual company for the rest of their lives (NS 504). This created the second imaginative universal, Juno. It also caused the giants to settle down in a particular area. They saw the need to keep this area clean so they began to bury their dead. There is no question that this account of the origin of humanity is peculiar. Nevertheless, Vico finds the account satisfying because it does not place any rational decision making at the origin of society. Society does not develop in a social contract but in the spontaneous checking of passions that produces poetic wisdom.
The Imaginative Universal In this section, Vico explains his perhaps most controversial notion: what he calls the imaginative universals or the poetic characters. Some scholars, most notably Benedetto Croce, hold that this notion is a tragic problem on Vico s part and is best ignored. Other scholars use the imaginative universal as a way to defend Vico as a champion of the philosophical need to use imagination and rhetoric. Vico himself saw the imaginative universal as the master key to his New Science which seems to make the topic worth investigating (NS 34). The imaginative universals are tricky to grasp, but two fairly non-contentious axioms can help provide a background. The first is that first language would be a combination of mute gestures and rudimentary, monosyllabic words (NS 225, 231). The second is that Children excel in imitation; we observe that they generally amuse themselves by imitating whatever they are able to apprehend (NS 215). This is connected to Vico s notion that people grasp what they do not understand by relating it to something familiar. In the case of children, they use their powerful imaginations to understand things by copying their movements. Vico speculates that the first humans must have had minds that resembled children. So, when they first started to use language, rather than naming objects conceptually, they imitated those objects with mute gestures and monosyllabic cries. Thus, when the thunder struck, the first people imitated the shaking of the sky and shouted the interjection pa (father) thereby creating the first word (NS 448). This makes imaginative universals quite distinct from intelligible universals. An intelligible universal would be constructed through an act similar to what we would ordinarily think of as 'naming'. An imaginative universal is created through the repeated imitation of an event. Words are merely the associated sound that goes with that imitation. So, for Vico, the first words were actually rituals that served as metaphors for events. The Discovery of the True Homer Book III of the New Science contains one of Vico s most remarkable insights. Vico was among the first, if not the first, to hold that Homer was not one individual writing poems but was a conglomeration of different poets who expressed the will of the entire people. His arguments for this are a combination of philological claims which show that there are many disparate elements in the work, as well as philosophical claims that when the work was composed, people could not have been using modern wisdom to write it as a modern epic. Vico s motivation for this reading of Homer is his quest to find a metaphysical truth to history. If the works of Homer were written by one person, then the truths held in it would be arbitrary. However, Vico argues that Homer s poems spring from the common sense of all the Greek people. Therefore, the poems represent institutions universal to a culture that can then be used to justify universal truths. Whereas in the Universal Law, where Vico examined Roman law to see its universality, he has now replaced that idea with Homer s poems since those poems date back earlier than the law.
The Barbarism of Reflection The brief conclusion of the New Science largely pays homage to the glory of divine providence. Within it, Vico gives a brief statement about the barbarism of reflection. As indicated in the section on the Ideal Eternal History, Vico sees that history is cyclical. Vico claims that history begins in a barbarism of sense and ends in a barbarism of reflection. The barbarism of reflection is a returned barbarism in which the common sense established by religion through poetic wisdom holding a society together has been broken down by individual interests. The interests are spurred because individuals each think according to their own conceptual scheme without concern for the society, which makes it barbaric. Vico describes the returned barbarism this way, such peoples [in the barbarism], like so many beasts, have fallen into the custom of each man thinking only of his own private interests and have reached the extreme delicacy, or better of pride, in which like wild animals they bristle and lash out at the slightest displeasure (NS 1106). These private interests lead into a civil war in which everyone betrays everyone else. This takes humanity back to where it started -- individual giants acting solely on their own individual passions.