Vico, Genealogist of Modernity

205 Pages·2002·1.439 MB·English

by  Robert C. Miner

VICO
Genealogist of Modernity
VICO
Genealogist of Modernity
ROBERT C. MINER
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2002 by
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
http://www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
A record of the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request from the
Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-268-03468-9
ISBN 9780268159849
∞ This book was printed on acid-free paper.
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any
formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [email protected].
For
HEATHER
They don’t recognize that humanity, developing by a historical living process,
will become at last a normal society, but they believe that a social system that
has come out of some mathematical brain is going to organize all humanity at
once and make it just and sinless in an instant, quicker than any living
process! That’s why they instinctively dislike history, “nothing but ugliness
and stupidity in it,” and they explain it all as stupidity!
— Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
CONTENTS
Note on Texts
Preface
Part 1 Humbling Modern Pride: Genealogy in the Early Vico
1 Ancients and Moderns
2 Eloquence and Prudence
3 Critique of Descartes
4 The Roots of Mathematics
5 Verum-Factum
Part 2 The Development of Modern Historical Consciousness in the Diritto
universale
6 The Intention and Form of the Diritto universale
7 Justice and Equity
8 Natural Law
9 Verum-Certum
10 Constantia and Christian Jurisprudence
Part 3 The Moral Genealogy of the Scienza nuova
11 Vico, Genealogy, History
12 Unmasking the Philosophers and Philologists
13 Knowledge as Archaeology
14 Pagan Consciousness in the Age of Gods
15 The Hebrew Difference
16 From Achilles to Socrates
17 Modern Nihilism and the Barbarism of Reflection
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
NOTE ON TEXTS
Citations to Vico in the notes furnish a short title, chapter or paragraph number,
name of editor, volume number or abbreviated edition title, and page number. In
citations to the various works of the Diritto universale, a paragraph number
immediately follows the page number, if the chapter cited has more than one
paragraph.
Full information about the editions I have used may be found in the
bibliography. Since the newer editions of Vico are generally more accessible and
better organized, I have not cited the Laterza edition of Croce, Gentile, and
Nicolini—once regarded as standard—except when referring to correspondence,
occasional pieces, or suppressed parts of the Scienza nuova not printed in the
editions of Cristofolini or Battistini. Additionally, comparisons of the present
work with recent Italian scholarship will be facilitated, since the latter
increasingly prefers the newer editions to that of Laterza.
Except where indicated, I have made my own translations. Although I have
often departed from their renderings, I have found the Bergin and Fisch
translations very helpful. The short titles below refer to the corresponding texts:
Orazioni Le orazioni inaugurali (1699–1707)
De ratione De nostri temporis studiorum ratione (1709)
De antiquissima De antiquissima Italorum sapientia ex linguae latinae
originibus eruenda. Liber primus sive Metaphysicus (1710)
Prima risposta Risposta del signor Giambattista Vico nella quale si sciolgono
tre opposizioni fatte da dotto signore contro il primo libro “De
antiquissima Italorum sapientia” (1711)
Seconda risposta Riposta di Giambattista Vico all’articolo X del tomo VIII del
“Giornale de’ letterati d’Italia” (1712)
Sinopsi Sinopsi del diritto universale (1720)
De uno Liber unus: De uno universi iuris principio et fine uno (1720)
De constantia Liber alter: De constantia iurisprudentis (1721)
Notae Notae in duos libros (1722)
Scienza nuova prima Principi di una scienza nuova intorno alla natura delle
nazioni per la quale si ritrouvano i principi di altro sistema
del diritto naturale delle genti (1725)
Vita Vita di Giambattista Vico scritta da se medesimo (1725–28,