The project of Vico’s New Science is a confusing and idiosyncratic one, but it is one for which the role of Homer and his true identity Vico takes as central. To better present Vico's arguments, I'll clarify the context in which Vico’s answer to the Homeric Question arises. Understanding its context in The New Science as … Continue reading Vico’s “Discovery of the True Homer”
Tag: vico
Vico on the Origin of Language
[This is last part of a longer series - previous post ("Joyce, Vico and the Homeric Question")] One of those questions that intellectuals in the 18th and early 19th century seem to have taken really seriously, one that perhaps we don't, is the question of how spoken and written language began. My sense is that most contemporary … Continue reading Vico on the Origin of Language
Vico Contest
Who doesn't like a good game of "interpret-that-frontispiece"? Below is the frontispiece for The New Science, by Giambattista Vico, about which Vico writes, in the helpfully titled opening section, "EXPLANATION OF THE PICTURE PLACED AS FRONTISPIECE TO SERVE AS INTRODUCTION TO THE WORK", that "As Cebes the Theban made a table of moral institutions, we … Continue reading Vico Contest
Original Positions 