Vico, Giovanni Battista :: essays research papers fc

Vico, Giovanni Battista See also Philosophy Biographies (jovnne bt-test veko), 1668-1744, Italian philosopher and historian, also known as Giambattista Vico, b. Naples. In 1699, Vico became professor of rhetoric at the Univ. of Naples, and in 1734 he was appointed historiographer to the king of Naples. Vico is regarded by many as the first modern historian he was the first to formulate a systematic method of historical research, and he developed a theory of account that was far in advance of his times. For Vico, history is the account of the birth and development of human societies and their institutions. He thus departed from previous systems of writing historyeither as the biographies of commodious men, or as the development of Gods will. Opposing the antihistorical elements of the prevailing Cartesianism (see Descartes, Ren ), he asserted that history is a valid object of human knowledge because man himself created history. Vico urged the field of force of language, mythology, and tradition as techniques for the investigation of history. As a philosopher, Vico believed that every period in history had a distinct character, and that similar periods recur throughout history in the same order. He departed from the old cyclical theories of history, however, in asserting that these periods do not recur in exactly the same form, moreover are subject to the modifications that new circumstances and developments impose. Thus the historian can never be a prophet. Vico also wrote on law, affirming an innate human reek of justice and natural law. Vicos major theories were developed in his New Science(1725), which he revised completely (1730 1744). Vicos work was little known in his own time, and his splendour was not recognized until the 19th cent. Bibliography See his autobiography (tr. by M. H. Finch and T. G. Bergin, 1944) G.