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The following reading of Giambattista Vico's Scienza nuova (1744) employs a Machiavellian lens to illustrate how issues preventing political longevity and encouraging ever-proliferating contingencies are overcome epistemologically, not through atemporal Cartesian reason, but rather through a layered, trans-historical hermeneutics. Because Vico frequently references (both tacitly and explicitly) Niccolò Machiavelli and because the two thinkers have a common grounding in humanist studies, particularly in rhetoric, the present discussion will explore the ways in which they share a distinct worldview that defines history as the epistemological experience of the individual and places concerns for proper governance at its core.A triadic interpretive schema will parse through three major thematic threads common to both Machiavellian and Vichean thought—advice; the individual; and communal laws—in order to analyze their three corresponding modes of argumentation—the visual, the metaphorical/poetical, and the legal—that are essential to substantiate the affinities and novelty of these two thinkers' practical philosophies. The Introduction will discuss Machiavelli and Vico's similar peripheral location with respect to modernity as a means to establish the basis for their comparison. Specifically, the Introduction will explain why Machiavelli's writings deepen comprehension of the Scienza nuova and the claim Vico puts forth within it of its innovation from his pro-Descartes contemporaries.Chapter One, entitled "Allegorical Thinking and the Problem of Contingency," will confront the difficulty of securing universally applicable praxes, as typified by the slippery counsel in Machiavelli's Principe, and will analyze how Vico proposes a solution through the Scienza's frontispiece. By foregrounding the rhetorical and interpretative techniques that enable allegory to link two levels of meaning—surface and hidden, poetical and philosophical—Chapter One will show how the Machiavellian prince anticipates the overcoming of temporal obstacles that is central to the reading and implementation of Vico's science, particularly through the visualization of two moments in time.Chapter Two, entitled "The Individual, the Collective, and the Fictions of Exemplarity," analyzes the entity responsible for the resolution of contingency, moving from the individual to the many. Machiavelli, in his Vita di Castruccio Castracani, obliquely answers the question he proposes on the waning validity of the self as both model and propagator of continuity, overturning the efficacy of legacies according to filial succession for one based on interpretative ties. Chapter Two contends that Castruccio's sayings look forward to the ways in which Vico argues Homer's exemplarity as depending less on an individual's merits and more on a collective representational impulse, with a person's identity becoming the vehicle for the majority's ideas, desires, and will.Chapter Three, entitled "Legislating the Histories of Human Thinking," brings together the allegorical and collective modes of thinking from Chapters One and Two, respectively, in order to demonstrate how both Machiavelli and Vico envision laws as essential to political stability and history as essential to practical philosophy. By comparing representations of legal processes and order in Machiavelli's Istorie fiorentine and in the final two books of Vico's Scienza, Chapter Three's argument will highlight the core kinship between these two thinkers' political theories as centered on the need to safeguard societies against change by using the very source of change itself—the human mind and its concrete, disembodied manifestations in society.

"Among the classics of the history of philosophy, the Scienza nuova (New Science) by Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) was largely neglected and generally misunderstood during the author's lifetime. From the nineteenth century onwards Vico's views found a wider audience, and today his influence is widespread in the humanities and social sciences. The New Science is often taught in courses at colleges and universities, both in philosophy and Italian departments and in general humanities courses. Despite the excellent English translations of this enigmatic book and numerous studies in English of Vico, many sections of the work remain challenging to the modern reader. Vico's New Science of the Intersubjective World offers both an in-depth analysis of all the important ideas of the book as well as an evaluation of their contribution to our present understanding of the social world. In the first chapter, Vittorio Hosle examines Vico's life, sources, and writings. The second and third chapters discuss the concerns and problems of the Scienza nuova. The fourth chapter traces the broader history of Vico's reception. Hosle facilitates the understanding of many passages in the work as well as the overarching structure of its claims, which are often dispersed over many sections. Hosle reformulates Vico's vision in such a way that it is not only of historical interest but may inspire ongoing debates about the nature of the humanities and social sciences as well as many other issues on which Vico sheds light, from the relation of poetry and poetics to the development of law. This book will prepare students and scholars for a precise study of the Scienza nuova, equipping them with the necessary categories and context and familiarizing them with the most important problems in the critical debate on Vico's philosophy. "Vico's New Science of the Intersubjective World delivers a comprehensive treatment of Vico, which is neither too detailed and technical nor too superficial. The book gives a clear picture of what Vico wanted to say, where he might have been wrong or become obsolete, and what his true achievements are for which he still deserves praise."--Peter Konig, University of Heidelberg"--

Defends the use of narrative by showing its role in culture. Greek philosophy defined culture as the changes in society, thought, & beliefs as opposed to eternal truths. Giambattista Vico argued against mechanical philosophy & saw culture as the privileged object of study & science. Johann Gottfried Herder defined culture, recognized diverse cultures, & believed that the understanding of nature must be part of culture. G. W. F. Hegel built on Herder's ideas & postulated three dimensions of culture that were the beginnings of the humanities. Science accepted the solving of epistemological problems in the natural sciences through narrative. Use of the narrative began to enrich the comprehension of all dimensions of culture, individuality, & humanity. The disempowerment created by the global economy has placed the use of narrative in crisis. It is the imaginative storyteller who can give back a hope for the future. L. A. Hoffman

The Perestroika movement recently reopened longstanding debates about the scholarly and political implications of orienting political science research around a scientific ideal derived from the natural sciences. Many Perestroikans, like earlier critics of "naturalized" political science, turned to ontology, opposing the political world to the natural world to espouse what I call a two-sciences settlement: a separate-but-equal arrangement in which political science and natural science would each operate according to distinct methodological imperatives dictated by their distinctive objects. In this article, I critically appraise this divided settlement and the two-worlds ontology that underwrites it. I recover an alternative, less dualistic vision of politics and nature from Giambattisa Vico, challenging received views of him as an early architect of the two-sciences settlement. Vico's vision of ontological hybridity, I argue, offers more robust support to the Perestroikan goals of methodological pluralism and political engagement than the two-worlds ontology Perestroikans often invoked.

Anti-perfectionism is a philosophical perspective combining the view of man as an imperfect and non-self-sufficient being with a scientific epistemology based on imperfect knowledge. From an epistemological perspective, it has roots in Socrates and, more recently, in the post-empiricism of Giambattista Vico, up to phenomenology. From an anthropological perspective, it is a philosophical tradition based on an awareness of the constitutive dependency of individual performance and fulfilment of man on his interaction with others. It is conceived in opposition to the individualism and perfect rationality of most social theories. The paper analyses both the philosophical and the epistemological premises of anti-perfectionism as well as its consequences in terms of economic methodology. It will specifically develop the momentary intersection of phenomenology and Austrian economics. The theory of knowledge and of sense-making of phenomenology will be discussed with particular attention to intersubjectivity, which expresses anti-perfectionism well. The interpretations of human knowledge and action of Scheler and Schütz are analysed and connected to some contemporary streams of Austrian economics.

В статье рассматривается соотношение в политической литературе раннего Нового времени двух моделей «гражданской науки»: риторической науки о контингентном (rhetorica primaria) и mathesis politica, устойчиво ассоциируемой у авторов раннего Просвещения с именем Декарта. Объектом исследования выступают две науки о социально-политическом мире, которые в философской и исследовательской традиции рассматриваются как антитетические: «новая наука» (scienza nuova) Джамбаттисты Вико и «гражданская наука» (scientia civilis) Томаса Гоббса. На материале неизученных нидерландских источников исследуется рецепция риторического аспекта Гоббсовой «гражданской науки». Анализируется критика конструктивистской модели государства Т. Гоббса у Дж. Вико, который противопоставляет Гоббсову «протосоциологическому» стилю теоретизирования исторический способ мышления социальности и «открытую» структуру политического действия. ; Present article is focused upon two samples of Early-Modern «civil sciences»: rhetorical inquiry dealing with contingency (so called «rhetorica primaria»), and mathesis politica, traditionally referring in intellectual context of the Early Enlightenment to Descartes. Special attention is paid to the famous «new sciences», which are considered in the secondary literature as antithetical: Giambattista Vico's scienza nuova and Thomas Hobbes scientia civilis. Drawing upon almost unknown 17th century Dutch political writings, the study examines the ways of reception of Thomas Hobbes' civil science conceived as a rhetorical inquiry. The author also explores G. Vico alternative to Hobbes' constructionist theoretical style.

Poetical politics of Giambattista Vico
The article presents a part of Vico's New Sience that is not so well known, but probably was a solid foundation of Vico's famous concept of ricorsi. The thinker's interest in poetical foundation of first societies is in a clear opposition with Cartesian and contractualist's visions of philosophy and politics dominant in his time. The article shows how Vico's connection to the renaissance tradition of poetical language gave him tools to explore the antiquity in a fruitfull way for philosophical and historical purposes. Nevertheless, it is partially also the tradition of Heidegger and Foucault, which makes Vico even more interesting to a contemporary reader. The article presents the poetical foundation of politics in concrete steps present in New Sience: the moment of foundation, religion of the first community, its language, morality, social structure, change, etc. It also explains epistemological means of human's becoming historical and political: ingegno, metaphor, myth, universals, dictionary of humanity, Eternal Ideal History. As to be complete, it deals with the issue so vividly discussed during medieval and renaissance times, that is of Homer, evidencing the pride of scientists. This all brings to the attention of a reader a totally original vision of the beginnings of zoon politicon that was and is in the first instance animal symbolicum.

1. Introduction -- 2. Conservatism and Social Criticism: Pascal on Faith, Reason, and Politics -- 3. Giambattista Vico and Democratic Pluralism: Lessons for Deliberative Democracy -- 4. A Modest Spinozist: George Eliot and the Limits of Rationalism -- 5. Projections Upon the Void: Irving Babbitt's Critique of Naturalism -- 6. Carl Schmitt's Exceptional Critique of Rationalism -- 7. Moral Man in a Morally Irrational World: Max Weber and the Limits of Reason -- 8. The Moral Personality of Mikhail Bulgakov -- 9. Nec Spe Nec Metu: Philosophic Catharsis in Karl Löwith's Meaning in History -- 10. Metaphor, Meaning, and Mind: Knowledge and Imagination in Owen Barfield -- 11. Rings and Rationalism: Tolkien's Tales Against Domination -- 12. Shedding the Shackles of Rationalism -- 13. Beautiful Minds: Gregory Bateson on Ecology, Insanity, and Wisdom -- 14. Robert Nisbet: Art, History, and the Anti-Rationalism of Sociological Methodology -- 15. Elizabeth Anscombe on Rationalism -- 16. A.C. Graham on Rationalism, Irrationalism, and Anti-Rationalism ("Aware Spontaneity") -- 17. Intention, Intellect, and Imagination: Stuart Hampshire's Pluralism -- 18. Rationality and Tradition in Roger Scruton's Thought -- 19. A Counter-Enlightenment of the Present: A Defense of John Grays' Modus Vivendi Liberalism.

RésuméPour les linguistes, les anthropologues et les archéologues, l'image emblématique précède depuis toujours et partout l'apparition du signe. Ce mythe d'une langue figurée composée d'icônes, qui constitue lafigure adversede l'écriture, a profondément influencé la tradition occidentale. Dans cet article, l'auteur essaie de montrer que l'on ne peut comprendre la nature logique des mnémotechnies amérindiennes (pictographies,khipus) qu'en passant de l'interrogation inévitablement ethnocentrique, que soulève leur comparaison avec l'écriture, à un tout autre ordre de questions qui relèvent de l'anthropologie comparative. Plutôt que de chercher à savoir si les techniques amérindiennes de mémorisation sont de véritables écritures ou seulement des mnémotechnies, on peut se demander si ces symbolismes possèdent des traits formels en commun, s'ils impliquent des opérations mentales comparables et si ces systèmes appartiennent à un même univers conceptuel, à une langue mentale – pour reprendre une idée de Giambattista Vico – qui caractériserait les arts amérindiens de la mémoire. Si l'on suit cette perspective, les techniques de la mémoire cessent de nous sembler hybrides ou imprécises et nous pourrons mieux en comprendre la nature et les fonctions en tant qu'artefacts mentaux.

Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) is best remembered for his major work, the New Science (Scienza nuova), in which he sets forth the principles of humanity and gives an account of the stages common to the development of all societies in their historical life. Controversial at the time of its publication in 1725, the New Science has come to be seen as the most ambitious attempt before Comte at a comprehensive science of human society and the most profound analysis of the philosophy of history prior to Hegel. Despite the fundamental importance of the New Science, there has been no philosophical commentary of the text in any language, until now. Written by the noted Vico scholar Donald Phillip Verene, this commentary can be read as an introduction to Vico's thought or it can be employed as a guide to the comprehension of specific sections of the New Science. Following the structure of the text scrupulously, Verene offers a clear and direct discussion of the contents of each division of the New Science with close attention to the sources of Vico's thought in Greek philosophy and in Roman jurisprudence. He also highlights the grounding of the New Science in Vico's other works and the opposition of Vico's views to those of the seventeenth-century natural-law theorists. The addition of an extensive glossary of Vico's Italian terminology makes this an ideal companion to Vico's masterpiece, ideal for both beginners and specialists.