THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO

Transcription

1 THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO

2 THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO AN INTRODUCTION TO LA SCIENZA NUOV A by FREDERICK VAUGHAN II MARTINUS NI]HOFF / THE HAGUE /1972

3 I972 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form ISBN-13: no-o

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5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The customary practice of acknowledging the assistance of others in one's work carries with it the prospect of extending one's own limitations of scholarship to those one respects and admires. But courtesy demands that acknowledgements be made. It is, nevertheless, with a certain uneasiness that I include among those who aided me, by encouragement and advice, in the preparation of this short work on the political philosophy of Giambattista Vico the names of Leo Strauss, Joseph Cropsey and Sir Isaiah Berlin. By mentioning these three scholars I do not intend to imply that they share my views on Vico; the views expressed here are solely my own and should not be attributed to them. Sir Isaiah Berlin, for one, does not agree with my interpretations but, with characteristic graciousness, encouraged me to present them in this volume. I am not only grateful to him for this encouragement, but also for affording me the opportunity of discussing this and related matters as a Visiting Fellow of Wolfson College: Oxford, during Hilary Term, I am permanently indebted to Professors Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey for having set me on "the longer way." To these two scholars more than to any others lowe my love of political philosophy. I should also like to thank Mrs. Christine Farenhorst-Praamsma for assisting me to prepare the manuscript for publication. And, I also wish to thank Cornell University Press for permission to quote from The New Science of Giambattista Vico, and Vico's Autobiography translated by Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch.

6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement Preface INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. THE NEW SCIENCE CHAPTER II. VICO'S INTENTION CHAPTER III. THE INFLUENCES ON VICO CHAPTER IV. THE RISE AND COURSE OF NATIONS Bibliography VII XI

7 PREFACE It would be an understatement to say that the New Science is difficult to read. Most contemporary readers conclude with a Russian scholar that Vico's thought "is expressed in extremely naive forms, profound thoughts are interspersed with all sorts of pedantic trifles, the exposition is very confusing, yet it is beyond doubt that the basic idea is a work of genius." 1 There can be no disputing the fact that the New Science is difficult to read; the dispute emerges in the effort to explain how a work which is at once "confusing," "naive" and "pedantic," can be a "work of genius." The purpose of this brief study is to suggest that a good deal of the confusion can be dispelled when the New Science is read with care and an eye to the possibility of two levels of meaning. We must never forget that Vico was a professor of rhetoric and was therefore familiar with the techniques of cautious writing. It is our conviction that the New Science is an exoteric book which means that it contains two levels of meaning: one which conveys a popular and orthodox message, and another which conveys a philosophical message addressed to philosophers.2 A large number of contemporary scholars tend to minimize or dismiss this type of writing. But we have the testimony of John Toland, a contemporary of Vico, that exoteric writings were relatively frequent in those days. Toland wrote in 1720 of "the Exoteric and Esoteric Philosophy, that is, of the External and Internal Doctrine of the ancients: the one open and public, accommodated to popular Prejudices and established Religions, the other private and secret, wherein, to the few capable and discrete, was taught the real Truth stript of all disguises." 3 Toland demonstrates this technique by showing how many of the ancients em- 1 M. Lifshitz, "Giambattista Vico," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. VIn (March, 1948), p See, Leo Strauss, Persecution and the Art of Writing, (The Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois, 1952), p "Clidophorus," Tetradymus, (London, 1720), p. 63.

8 XII PREFACE ployed it. But he also demonstrates with references to several writers that this manner of writing was in vogue amongst his contemporaries. "I have more than once hinted, that the External and Internal Doctrine, are as much now in use as ever; though the distinction is not so openly and professedly appraved as amang the Ancients." 4 The fear of persecution was the reason why Taland's contemporaries as well as the ancients resorted to this type of writing. "The priests, for their own interest, were not wanting anywhere to promote... penal laws; and the Magistrates (partly through Superstition proceeding from their ignarance; and partly through Policy, ta grasp more power than the laws allawed, by the assistance of the Priests) have been commonly very ready ta inforce thase laws, by what they called wholesome severities. Hence na room was left for the propagating of Truth, except at the expense of a man's life, or at least of his honar and imployments, whereaf numerous examples may be alleg'd. The Philosophers therefor, and ather wellwishers to mankind in most nations, were constrained by this haly tyranny ta make use of 'a twa-fold doctrine; the one Popular, accommadated ta the Prejudices of the vulgar, and to the receiv'd Custams ar Religians: the other philosophical, canfarmable to the nature of things, and consequently to Truth; which, with doors fast shut and under au other precautions, they communicated onely to friends af knawn probity, prudence and capacity.' These they generally call'd the Exateric and Esateric, or the External and Internal Doctrines." 5 With this advice in mind, let us proceed ta the New Science. 4 Ibid., p. 94. I Ibid., p