Table Of Content

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,