Giorgio Tagliacozzo, Michael Mooney, and Donald Philip Verene, Guest Editors
Arien Mack, Journal Editor
Giorgio Tagliacozzo, Michael Mooney, and Donald Philip Verene
Editors’ Note
The papers appearing here and those which are to follow in a second special issue of Social Research were originally presented at the conference on “Vico and Contemporary Thought” held in New York City on January 27–31, 1976, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Giambattista Vico’s New Science.
Giorgio Tagliacozzo
Introductory Remarks
The author introduces us to the conference on Vico and Contemporary Thought and explains how this meeting came about and how it relates to the Institute for Vico Studies.
Max H. Fisch
What Has Vico to Say to Philosophers of Today?
What Vico has to say for philosophers is in large part what he is already saying to anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, linguists, and educationists. The question is meant to be unfolded throughout the duration of the conference.
Donald P. Verene
Vico’s Philosophy of Imagination
Examines the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744) on the imagination of humankind and the impact which it had on the philosophical formation of Germany's intellectuals, especially on the formation of "Geisteswissenschaften" in the mid-nineteenth century. The author explains that The New Science, gives form to powers of the human spirit that differ in kind from those that generate the methodology of the natural and observational sciences.
Sir Isaiah Berlin
Comment on Professor Verene’s Paper
Questions the specific workings of one facet of Giovanni Battista Vico's (1668–1744) theory of imagination, the recollective "fantasia."
Donald P. Verene
Response by the Author
Responds to Isaiah Berlin's critique in this journal issue of the author's article on the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744).
Leon Pompa
Human Nature and the Concept of a Human Science
Examines two concepts in the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744) pertaining to the nature of human science: the belief that knowledge of human phenomena can be as rigorous and scientific as knowledge of natural phenomena, and that since human knowledge depends on a storehouse of precedent and antecedent experiential knowledge it can be more intelligible than natural science.
Max H. Fisch
Comment on Professor Pompa’s Paper
The paper outlines and discusses what the author takes to be the two main philosophical claims involved in Vico’s conception of human science. The first is that our knowledge of the world of human phenomena can be as rigorous and scientific as our knowledge of the world of natural phenomena. The second is that, because it is a human science, it involves an appeal to antecedent, experiential knowledge of what it is to be human, which renders its products more intelligible than those of any purely natural science.
Leon Pompa
Response by the Author
Replies to Max H. Fisch's commentary in this journal issue regarding the author's article on the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744).
Ernan McMullin
Vico’s Theory of Science
Examines Giovanni Battista Vico's (1668–1744) theory of science as stated in "Scienza nuova," concentrating on his application of scientific method to the social sciences and closely analyzing his inductive, retroductive, and axiomatic logic.
Leon Pompa
Comment on Professor McMullin’s Paper
Comments on Ernan McMullin's article in this journal issue examining Giovanni Battista Vico's (1668–1744) theory of science.
Lionel Rubinoff
Vico and the Interpretation of Historical Interpretation
In his treatise "Scienza nuova," Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) treated time and especially historical time as a subjective creation of the human mind. Its interpretation thus becomes not a trap, but a tool for constant reaffirmation and rejuvenation.
B. A. Haddock
Vico and the Problem of Historical Reconstruction
In his treatise "Scienza nuova," Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) discussed historical reconstruction, asserting that historians in interpreting and reconstructing past civilizations rely on their own contemporary ideas and perceptions of society, which distort historical ideas.
Robert Welsh Jordan
Vico and the Phenomenology of the Moral Sphere
Examines the differentiation between moral sciences, which are the subjective, conscious dimension of thoughts, actions, and values, and natural sciences in the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668-1744); and includes a critique of Max Weber's idea of phenomenological moral science.
Howard Tuttle
Comments on Professor Jordan’s Paper
Comments on eidetic psychology in relation to the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744).
B. A. Haddock
Vico: The Problem of Interpretation
Examines difficulties in interpreting, and various interpretations of, the philosophy of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744). Difficulties in interpretation arise because his philosophy is suggestive rather than of a systematic nature. The true value of Vico's works on the history of ideas lies in his criterion for judgment of ideas which avoided anachronism.
Ernesto Grassi
The Priority of Common Sense and Imagination: Vico's Philosophical Relevance Today
As a background to Giovanni Battista Vico's (1668–1744) perceptions of common sense and imagination as they interact and construct rational and subjective thought for humans, the author discusses Cartesian rationalism and the impact which logic and structuralism had on philosophy prior to Vico.
John Michael Krois
Comment on Professor Grassi’s Paper
Comments on Ernesto Grassi's paper in this journal issue dealing with the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744), "The Priority of Common Sense and Imagination: Vico's Philosophical Relevance Today." Queries Grassi's discussion of the logic of the imagination - specifically, the bases for the fundamental importance attached to work and its connection with the imagination and original thought.
Ernesto Grassi
Response by the Author
Replies to John Michael Krois's critique of the author's article in this journal issue dealing with the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744), "The Priority of Common Sense and Imagination: Vico's Philosophical Relevance Today." Responds by differentiating material and spiritual work.
Michael Mooney
The Primacy of Language in Vico
Examines the primacy of language in the philosophical and historical writings of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744) regarding the origins of human society and culture, 1709-30.
Donald R. Kelley
In Vico Veritas: The True Philosophy and the New Science
Examines the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744) on jurisprudence and the legal tradition as brought forth in his treatise, "Scienza nuova."
Gustavo Costa
Vico's Political Thought in His Time and Ours
Examines Giovanni Battista Vico's (1668–1744) attitudes toward Europe, highlighting his love of German Gothicism, his distaste for France and the Cartesian philosophical method, and his personal preference for the political system of Great Britain, which he saw as the home of poetic and heroic barbaric ways of life during the 18th century.
Robert Nisbet
Vico and the Idea of Progress
Examines the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744) on the idea of progress. There is no reference to progress in the traditional sense, but rather to the problem of progress and the events and intellectual climate which cause it to occur.
Gustavo Costa
Vico's Influence on Eighteenth-Century Europen Culture: A Footnote to Professor Nisbet's Paper
Examines the thought of Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744) on the idea of progress. There is no reference to progress in the traditional sense, but rather to the problem of progress and the events and intellectual climate which cause it to occur.
Sir Isaiah Berlin
Vico and the Ideal of the Enlightenment
Examines Enlightenment thought pertaining to the concept of the perfect society and relates this to its impact on and occurrence in the writings of the Italian historian and philosopher Giovanni Battista Vico (1668–1744).