Vicos New Science: The Unity of Piety and Wisdom :: Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Vicos unexampled learning The Unity of Piety and WisdomABSTRACT In Vicos New Science wiseness is understood in a double sense. On the one hand, wisdom doer the poetic wisdom that provides intelligibility for the peoples of the nations during their early stages of development. On the other hand, wisdom means the noetic knowledge gained by the Vichian scientist who contemplates concrete historicity in the turn on of the New Science. By means of an examination of three principle aspects of Vicos science, and by facial expression to his mood of the origin of the most rudimentary institutions of humanity, primordial piety fear of the mythic other is shown to be the origin of poetic wisdom. And, by focusing on the necessity of surmounting the conceit of scholars and the conceit of nations for a science of universal history, philosophical piety openness to the wholly Other is revealed as the ground of philosophical wisdom. This authorship sets out to show how Vicos science of the pri nciples of humanity is, at the same time, a science of the unity of piety and wisdom. In the final paragraph of his magnum opus, the New Science, Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) provides a summarizing statement concerning the overall character of the workInsomma, da tutto ci che si quest opera ragionato, da finalmente conchiudersi che questa Scienza porta indivisiblmente seco lo studio della piet, e che, se non siesi pio, non si pu daddovero esser saggio. To sum up, from all that has been set forth in this work, it is to be finally concluded that this science carries inseparably with it the study of piety, and that he who is not holier-than-thou cannot be truly wise.Why did Vico conclude the New Science with the assertion that, from everything set forth in this work, this science carries inseparably with it the study of piety? And why did he choose to end the New Science with the declaration He who is not pious, cannot be truly wise? In what sense is Vicos New Science a science of piety? Vicos conception of the ideal eternal history the universal pattern of the histories of all the nations signifies a passage from the traditional metaphysical conception of history, as the history of beings, to a metaphysic or science of the certain as the certain reflects or embodies the common nature of nations. This common nature of nations, moreover, is seen in the light of divine providence.