Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
Few philosophers in our tradition have raised structures of speculation more complex than those of Giambattista Vico. Nevertheless, in following the course of his speculation, from the earliest orations through the De Antiquissima Italorum Sapientia, the massive Diritto Universale, and, finally, the successive transformations of the Scienze Nuova, certain definite themes appear which engage his meditation at every stage and impart, as a consequence, unity and coherence, though never simplicity, to the whole. Basic among these is the theme of the civil education of man.
1 Vico, G. B., The New Science, trans. Bergen, Thomas G. and Fisch, Max H. (revised edition; Ithaca, 1968), paragraph 331Google Scholar.
2 Vico, G. B., Diritto Universale, editor Nicolini, Fausto (Bari, 1936), Vol. I, LGoogle Scholar; cf. Donati, Benvenuto, Nuovi Studi sulla Filosofia Civile di G. B. Vico (Firenze, 1936), p. 201Google Scholar.
3 Diritto Universale, xlvii.
4 Diritto Universcde, xlvi.
5 Diritto Universale, liv.
6 Diritto Universale, lv.
7 Vico, G. B., On the Study Methods of Our Times, trans. Gianturco, Elio (Indianapolis-New York, 1968), p. 49Google Scholar.
8 Ibid.
9 Diritto Universale, xlix.
10 Ibid., i (writer's translation).
11 Ibid., Principium, 3, xlv.
12 Ibid., xvi.
13 Ibid., xvii, xviii.
14 Ibid., xix.
15 Ibid., xxxiv.
16 Ibid., lvi.
17 On the Study Method of Our Times, p. 33.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid., p. 49.
20 Ibid., p. 49.
21 Ibid., p. 66.
22 Ibid., p. 67.
23 Ibid., p. 69.
24 The New Science, pp. 120–127.
25 Ibid., p. 331.
26 Vico, , Opere, ed. Nicolini, F. (Napoli, 1962), p. 245, noteGoogle Scholar.
27 Vico, , De Antiquissima Italorum Sapientia in Vico, Le Orazioni Inauguurali, ed. Gentile, G. and Nicolini, F. (Bari: 1914), proemiumGoogle Scholar.
28 New Science, p. 127.
29 Diritto Universale, “De constantia philologiae,” xii; Vol. II, p. 363.
30 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 376.