Giambattista Vico

Giambattista Vico or Giovanni Battista Vico (June 23rd 1668 – January 23rd 1744), philosopher Italy N, precursor of the Philosophy of the history.

Biography

Born with Naples, wire of a modest bookseller, it makes, according to its dires ( Vie of Giambattista Vico written by itself , 1728), of the studies enough décousues and enjoys to be defined as an autodidact. Initially tutor, then professor of Rhetoric to the University of Naples of 1699 with 1741, it is, of 1735 to his death, Historiographe at Charles III, king de Naples.

The major work of Vico is Principi di scienza nuova of intorno went common will natura delle nazioni (“ new Science ”, 1725).

Vico exposes to it a cyclic theory (“ corsi and ricorsi ”) of the history according to which the human society progresses through a series of phases going from cruelty to civilization to turn over to cruelty.

the first phase, the “ age of the gods ” is that of the emergence of the religion, the family and other institutions basic;
the second phase, the “ age of the heroes ”: the people are maintained under the yoke of a dominant class the noble ones;
the third phase, the “ age of the men ”: the people rise and conquer the equality, process which however marks the beginning of the disintegration of the company.

The influence of Vico, recognized of sound living rather like Philologue that for his philosophical system, measures itself especially at the beginning of the 19th century, when Jules Michelet publishes his Principes of the philosophy of the history (1835), and that it translates and presents Vico like a philosopher of the history. He gives of it a romantic reading, which will inspire at the same time Hegel and Karl Marx. Its influence will be also major on the Italian idealists Benedetto Croce and Giovanni Gentile, but also on the Marxist Georges Sorel. He moreover is regarded as a reference for the epistemology constructivist, Ernst von Glasersfeld qualifying it of first true constructivist (in An Introduction to Radical Constructivism ).

Quotations

Verum ipsum factum (" Truth is to do it même")
Verum and factum convertuntur (" Truth and the fact are convertibles")

Works

the antique wisdom of Italy , 1710, GF, ISBN 2080707426
new science , 1725, Gallimard, ISBN 2070731340
Life of Giambattista Vico written by itself , Combined, ISBN 2844851118

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