A STUDY OF THE POLITICAL IDEAS OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO'S "NEW SCIENCE".
Item
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Title
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A STUDY OF THE POLITICAL IDEAS OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO'S "NEW SCIENCE".
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Identifier
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AAI8203281
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identifier
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8203281
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Creator
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FULCO, ADRIENNE.
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Contributor
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Martin Fleisher
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Date
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1981
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General
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Abstract
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Giambattista Vico wrote his Second New Science (1774) over 250 years ago, but to date there have been few systematic treatments of his political ideas or of his place in the history of political thought. This study examines the ideas of Vico's New Science and seeks to evaluate his contributions to the tradition of political philosophy. His political ideas are considered in the context of his new method for establishing the true origins of civil society. Vico's intellectual background and the political and social climate of late seventeenth and early eighteenth century Naples are explored, and the genesis of his method is traced. Particular emphasis is placed on Vico's rejection of both the Cartesian theory of knowledge and the state of nature concept of the seventeenth century political theorists. It was as a result of his criticisms of those theories that he came to his own creative theory of knowledge and his concepts of both imagination and consciousness. The implications of his methodological accomplishment are discussed, and a thorough examination of his theory of the origins, growth and development of civil society, including the "corsi e ricorsi" of the nations, is undertaken. Finally, Vico's role as a political theorist is evaluated and his political insights are brought to bear on selected problems of contemporary political theory.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Political Science
