Giambattista Vico and Anglo-American Science: Philosophy and Writing PDF
Preview Giambattista Vico and Anglo-American Science: Philosophy and Writing
Giambattista Vico and Anglo-American Science W DE G Approaches to Semiotics 119 Editorial Committee Thomas A. Sebeok Roland Posner Alain Rey Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York Giambattista Vico and Anglo-American Science Philosophy and Writing Edited by Marcel Danesi Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York 1995 Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin. © Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data Giambattista Vico and Anglo-American science : philosophy and writing / edited by Marcel Danesi. p. cm. - (Approaches to semiotics ; 119) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 3-11-013665-1 (alk. paper) 1. Vico, Giambattista, 1668-1744. I. Danesi, Marcel, 1946 — II. Series. B3583.G45 1994 195—dc20 94-36877 CIP Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication-Data Giambattista Vico and Anglo-American science : philosophy and writing / ed. by Marcel Danesi. — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1994 (Approaches to semiotics ; 119) ISBN 3-11-013665-1 NE: Danesi, Marcel [Hrsg.]; GT © Copyright 1994 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-10785 Berlin. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ- ing photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printing: Gerike GmbH, Berlin. - Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin. Printed in Germany. Acknowledgments I wish to thank Victoria College, University of Toronto, and the Director of the 1990 International Summer Institute for Semiotic and Structural Studies, Professor Paul Perron, for having given me the opportunity to host an in- ternational conference on Vico within the framework of such a prestigious institute. I also wish to express my gratitude to the Office of Research Admin- istration, University of Toronto, the Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto, Dr. Caterina Cicogna, the Didactic Director of the Italian Consulate of Toronto, Professor Massimo Ciavolella, Chair of the Department of Italian Studies, and the Program in Semiotics of Victoria College for their generous financial support in organizing the conference. I cannot possibly mention here all the people who helped me with the organizational details. But I would like especially J > thank Alyson Vanstone, Jan Gordon, Lucy Danesi, Danila Danesi De Sousa, and Christopher De Sousa for their valuable help. This book is dedicated to them. Contents Marcel Danesi Introduction to Giambattista Vico: The Anglo-American perspective 1 Nella Cotrupi Vico, Burke, and Frye's flirtation with the sublime 35 Aldo D'Alfonso Metaphor and language learning: A Vichian perspective 51 Marcel Danesi Cognitive science: Toward a Vichian perspective 63 Robert J. Di Pietro Vico and second language acquisition 87 Francesco Guardiani Probing the natural law: McLuhan's reading of Vico 99 Adam Makkai Logic in modern linguistic theorizing: A Vichian perspective 113 Anna Makolkin Vico's Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness: The common eFsrsaennkc e Noufe snsaetli ons as a sign 121 Vico and current work in cognitive linguistics 127 Thomas A. Sebeok JForhonm VOi'cNoe itlol Cassirer to Langer 159 The origins of myth: Promethean or Orphic? 147 viii Contents Giorgio Tagliacozzo The study of Vico worldwide and the future of Vico studies 171 Renzo Titone From images to words: Language education in a Vichian perspective 189 Donald Phillip Verene Imaginative universals 201 Anthony Verna and Marcel Danesi An overview of recent Anglo-American Vico scholarship for the Jcaonnate mVpoizrmaruyll ebre-Zhoacvcioo ral, social, and cognitive sciences 213 Vico and theories of change in language 237 Lorraine Weir Imagination and memory in Vico and Joyce 243 Anthony Verna and Marcel Danesi (compilers) A selected bibliography of recent Anglo-American Vico scholarship in the contemporary behavioral, social, and cognitive sciences 249 Index 273 Introduction to Giambattista Vico: The Anglo-American perspective Marcel Dane si 1. Giambattista Vico (1688-1744) In 1725, the Neapolitan rhetorician and philosopher, Giambattista Vico, pub- lished a book whose title alone, La scienza nuova, should have guaranteed it a wide audience and a broad range of reactions. Even though it went virtually unnoticed outside of Naples, Vico firmly believed that his book would do for the study of mind and culture what Sir Isaac Newton's Principia mathemat- ica had done for the study of matter. So, soon after the publication of the first edition, he sent a copy to Newton. It is not known whether Newton ever received the book. But, as Manuel (1963: 43) suggests, even if he had, Newton "would not have remotely comprehended its meaning". Until the present century, Vico was an unknown figure in the world of Anglo-American science, philosophy, and writing. It was the translation of the third and final edition of the New science by Thomas G. Bergin and Max Fisch in 1948 (second edition 1984) that introduced Vico to a broad Anglo-American audience. But this is not the only reason why Vico has been neglected until recently by the English-speaking world. In my view, there are two other main reasons for this neglect. First, shortly after his death a "myth" crystallized that has always adversely affected how Vico is perceived by scientists and philosophers. Second, the mindset of the behavioral, cog- nitive, and social sciences has not, until recently, contemplated the kind of orientation suggested and exemplified by Vico. It is only of late that scientists of the mind have started to seriously consider the kinds of challenging and intriguing questions that are prefigured in the New science. 1.1. The "myth" of Vico Even though Vico's ideas were never really held in high regard during his lifetime, soon after his death, as Burke (1985: 1) notes, the New science began to inspire "an extraordinary enthusiasm in the most diverse readers". 2 Marcel Danesi Many of his readers outside of Italy came to regard Vico as a neglected intel- lectual figure who had ventured alone into uncharted territories where no one had previously dared to enter. For this reason, they maintained, he was bound to have been misunderstood and dismissed by his contemporaries. All this is certainly true to some extent. But such exaggerated dramatic portrayals, as Burke (1985) goes on to suggest, led unfortunately to a "myth of Vico". The negative connotations that are inevitably evoked by this kind of mythi- cization have always constituted a major impediment in getting mainstream philosophers and scientists to take notice of the New science as a serious treatise with implications for their respective fields. The myth was actually debunked by the Italian literary critic Benedetto Croce (1911) at the turn of the present century. But he probably did Vico's reputation more harm than good. Croce was inspired by Vico's ideas. How- ever, he adopted an ambiguous attitude toward Vico, because he believed that the New science contained errors and inconsistencies that needed correction. Given the influence that Croce had on Italian philosophy for most of this cen- tury, Vico became a forgotten figure in Italy until 1971 when Pietro Piovani founded a Center for Vico Studies in Naples. This Center publishes a jour- nal - the Bollettino del Centro di Studi Vichiani - and occasional monographs covering all aspects of Vico's thought. Only since the 1970s, therefore, can it be said that the scholarly community in Italy has started to look at Vico more impartially. This has led, particularly in the domain of philosophy, to a plethora of Italian-language publications on Vico. 2. Anglo-American science and philosophy Perhaps the primary reason for the neglect of Vico by Anglo-American sci- ence, as Haskell (1987) appropriately points out, is the fact that behavioral, cognitive, and social scientists have only recently started to become inter- ested in what Vico was talking about over two and a half centuries ago. Vico's ideas on the nature of human reason, and on how it must have origi- nated in the human imagination, are not only highly compatible with current thinking in the behavioral, cognitive, and, social sciences, but they are also highly suggestive of future paths for these fields of inquiry to pursue. The recent work on the role of metaphor in cognition and communication, for instance, is fundamentally Vichian in nature and scope (see Danesi 1989 for an overview of the relevant literature). The idea that symbolic behavior is
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