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A review by bradwadd
New Science by Giambattista Vico
4.0
Fascinating analysis of ancient Rome, Greece, antiquity, and the cycle of civilisations - with particular focus on illuminating the 'dark ages' (i.e. of both the ancient, pre-Socratic era, and the early medieval era).
Most interesting topics include his interpretation of ancient myth as poetic story telling of history, his analysis of Homer's works, and the development of the civil state from the family (ruled by divine right), to the aristocratic/heroic city state, to the human civil states of democracy and, finally, monarchy.
A broad range of classical history is covered and explained in great detail: the giantology of ancient peoples, the creation of pagan gods, the ancient citymakers/lawmakers such as Solon or Lycurgus (who, in fact, are not the original founders), the symbology that permeates through all of ancient mythology, the social class struggles between noble and pleb, etc.
Vico stories us through the institutions, driven by the fear of nature and it's elevation to the status of various supreme gods. Fear of the gods shames the people, while the gods' language must be divinated. This shames and tempers the first peoples, creating virtue among certain peoples. That shame helps form the first institutions: marriage, which creates the family; and burial, which reflects the belief in the immortality of the soul and veneration of gods and ancestors. Heroic figures, reflected in the Hercules myth, tames and cultivates the land, and slays beasts. Those peoples, the strong and pious, take in refugees: other peoples, without the temperance to found their own gods, nor the strength to protect themselves. The heads of the families, the fathers, therefore become both kings and priests protecting their now extended families, as well as their sacred religion, which confers on them, and them alone, the supreme power. From these family monarchs come other insitutions: the first lamguage, formed of hieroglyphs - entirely symbolic; the busks of family chiefs represent their strength, with emblems of their like used as a symbol of their authority, and eventually forming the first currencies. And so on.
Most of the focus is on ancient history, understandable given the intellectual milieu in which Vico was writing, but he concludes with a brief description of how these cycles end: (1) monarchy, (2) conquest, (3) return to barbarism.
Many of the topics are discussed several times, and reference earlier or later chapters constantly - forming a dense multi-layered and, therefore, well-connected and convincing argument.
Most interesting topics include his interpretation of ancient myth as poetic story telling of history, his analysis of Homer's works, and the development of the civil state from the family (ruled by divine right), to the aristocratic/heroic city state, to the human civil states of democracy and, finally, monarchy.
A broad range of classical history is covered and explained in great detail: the giantology of ancient peoples, the creation of pagan gods, the ancient citymakers/lawmakers such as Solon or Lycurgus (who, in fact, are not the original founders), the symbology that permeates through all of ancient mythology, the social class struggles between noble and pleb, etc.
Vico stories us through the institutions, driven by the fear of nature and it's elevation to the status of various supreme gods. Fear of the gods shames the people, while the gods' language must be divinated. This shames and tempers the first peoples, creating virtue among certain peoples. That shame helps form the first institutions: marriage, which creates the family; and burial, which reflects the belief in the immortality of the soul and veneration of gods and ancestors. Heroic figures, reflected in the Hercules myth, tames and cultivates the land, and slays beasts. Those peoples, the strong and pious, take in refugees: other peoples, without the temperance to found their own gods, nor the strength to protect themselves. The heads of the families, the fathers, therefore become both kings and priests protecting their now extended families, as well as their sacred religion, which confers on them, and them alone, the supreme power. From these family monarchs come other insitutions: the first lamguage, formed of hieroglyphs - entirely symbolic; the busks of family chiefs represent their strength, with emblems of their like used as a symbol of their authority, and eventually forming the first currencies. And so on.
Most of the focus is on ancient history, understandable given the intellectual milieu in which Vico was writing, but he concludes with a brief description of how these cycles end: (1) monarchy, (2) conquest, (3) return to barbarism.
Many of the topics are discussed several times, and reference earlier or later chapters constantly - forming a dense multi-layered and, therefore, well-connected and convincing argument.