New ScienceBarely acknowledged in his lifetime, the New Science of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) is an astonishingly perceptive and ambitious attempt to decipher the history, mythology and laws of the ancient world. Discarding the Renaissance notion of the classical as an idealised model for the modern, it argues that the key to true understanding of the past lies in accepting that the customs and emotional lives of ancient Greeks and Romans, Egyptians, Jews and Babylonians were radically different from our own. Along the way, Vico explores a huge variety of topics, ranging from physics to poetics, money to monsters, and family structures to the Flood. Marking a crucial turning-point in humanist thinking, New Science has remained deeply influential since the dawn of Romanticism, inspiring the work of Karl Marx and even influencing the framework for Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. |
Contents
EXPLANATION OF THE FRONTISPIECE | |
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE | |
ELEMENTS | |
PRINCIPLES | |
METHOD | |
PROLEGOMENA | |
POETIC METAPHYSICS | |
POETIC GEOGRAPHY | |
THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUE HOMER | |
DISCOVERY OF THE TRUE HOMER | |
INTRODUCTION | |
THREE KINDS OF GOVERNMENT | |
THREE KINDS OF LANGUAGE | |
THREE KINDS OF AUTHORITY | |
THREE KINDS OF JUDGMENTS | |
POETIC LOGIC | |
POETIC MORALITY | |
POETIC ECONOMICS OR HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT | |
POETIC POLITICS | |
EPITOMES OF POETIC HISTORY | |
POETIC COSMOGRAPHY | |
POETIC ASTRONOMY | |
THREE SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT | |
SECTION 13 | |
FINAL PROOFS CONFIRMING THE COURSE OF NATIONS | |
THE RESURGENCE OF NATIONS AND THE RECURRENCE OF HUMAN | |
The Recurrence of the Invariable Nature of Fiefs and the Recurrence | |
Description of the Ancient and Modern Worlds in the Light of the | |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles agrarian law ancient Roman antiquity aristocracies arms auspices authority Axiom called Chaldaeans chronology civil commonwealths contrast customs democracies derived described divine providence earliest early earth Egyptians eternal fact family fathers family servants fiefs founders giants gods golden passage Greece Greek heaven Hence Hercules Hermes Trismegistus heroes heroic cities hieroglyphics Homer human institutions humankind ideas imagined invented Jews Jupiter jurisprudence jurists kingdoms kings lands language later Latin Latium law of nations lived Livy marriage means meant medieval return metaphysics mind monarchies myths natural law nobles noun observed origins ownership pagan pagan nations patricians philosophers Phoenicians Plato plebeians poetic archetypes poetic wisdom poetry popular liberty preserved principles religion return of barbarism Roman law Rome Romulus says scholars Science Scythians senate sense Servius Tullius sovereign symbols Tacitus theological poets three kinds Trojan War truth Twelve Tables Ulysses Varro verb verse Vico Vico's virtue words