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A review by therealesioan
New Science by Giambattista Vico
5.0
It's mAAD how underappreciated Vico is as the father of sociology. Aside from his crucial influence over Joyce's Finnegans Wake, there's a whole swathe of critical theory in here. From Marx's dialectical history to Durkheime's analysis of nations. There's even postmodern thinking in here in regard to Vico's theory of how we construct religion and customs - and hence why we should be able to understand society first and foremost ahead of God.
His historical and mythological analysis here is particularly tantalizing though. The passage about pre-modern humans, in the age of poetic theology (รก la Mycenean Greece), being mute was astounding. It's an insight into the creative consciousness of a culture which sees humanity as inextricably bound to nature. The wind howls and waves murmur because they are just like us, a willing being full of elan vital.
It's that form of vitalism, tempered by his Platonic Christian framing, that makes Vico a masterfully paradoxical thinker. He's at once the Enlightenment's greatest and first historicist - while being it's biggest anti-modern critic. He's at once the most open-minded perennialist while also the most strict pagan-condemning Catholic.
More than anything Vico is a refreshing thinker. He demonstrates that there is a middle way between Rousseau and Hobbes. He's an eye-opener for those who are stuck in the AC Graying or Bertrand Russell mythological analytic story of philosophy.
His historical and mythological analysis here is particularly tantalizing though. The passage about pre-modern humans, in the age of poetic theology (รก la Mycenean Greece), being mute was astounding. It's an insight into the creative consciousness of a culture which sees humanity as inextricably bound to nature. The wind howls and waves murmur because they are just like us, a willing being full of elan vital.
It's that form of vitalism, tempered by his Platonic Christian framing, that makes Vico a masterfully paradoxical thinker. He's at once the Enlightenment's greatest and first historicist - while being it's biggest anti-modern critic. He's at once the most open-minded perennialist while also the most strict pagan-condemning Catholic.
More than anything Vico is a refreshing thinker. He demonstrates that there is a middle way between Rousseau and Hobbes. He's an eye-opener for those who are stuck in the AC Graying or Bertrand Russell mythological analytic story of philosophy.