Umanita and Civilta: Civil Education in Vico

In: The review of politics, Band 31, Heft 4, S. 477-494

Abstract

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.