Giambattista Vico's discreta domanda: between Cartesian hypothesis, biblical demonstration, and mathesis politica

Sokolov Pavel

Book chapter

Giambattista Vico's discreta domanda: between Cartesian hypothesis, biblical demonstration, and mathesis politica

P. 67-78.

Sokolov P.

This article is focused on the epistemological status of the New Science XLI Element, situated at an intersection of Biblical hermeneutics, civil science, and Cartesian «hypothetical cosmology». Our study seeks to disentangle the web of polemical contexts coming together in the «diluvian postulate» and to explain the peculiarity of this hybrid political–physical argument within the economy of Vichian opus magnum.

Language: English

Full text (PDF, 9.85 Mb)

Keywords: Giambattista Vico new science Cartesian cosmology Biblical Hermeneutics

Publication based on the results of: Политическое измерение нелегитимного аргумента в науках о языке и тексте(2013)

In book

Giambattista Vico's discreta domanda: between Cartesian hypothesis, biblical demonstration, and mathesis politica

Investigations on Giambattista Vico in the Third Millennium. New Perspectives from Brazil, Italy, Japan and Russia

Vishlenkova E. A., Iserov A. A., Penskaja E. et al. Iss. 28. Rome: Aracne editrice, 2014.

Eroicamente Vico. Medicina, vita civile e ragione poetica nel De mente heroica

Rome: Aracne editrice, 2018.

This book is dedicated to the last inaugural speech by Giambattista Vico - De mente heroica (1732). It is primarily focused on Vico's idea of medicina mentis, history of law, and civil education.

Added: Apr 22, 2018

17th Century Political Cartesianism and Its Opponents, Or Imaging the State from point fixe

Sokolov P., Ivanova J. Humanities. HUM. Basic Research Programme, 2012. No. 08.

This article examines the relation of two models of civil science in the early modern political literature: the rhetorical science of contingency (rhetorica primaria), and mathesis politica, associated with Descartes by some early Enlightenment authors. The authors analyze the reception of the rhetorical aspect of Hobbes’s civil science with a special focus on Vico’s criticism of Hobbes’s constructivist state model, showing how Vico counters the Hobbesian ‘protosociological’ style of theorizing with his own historical way of reflecting on the social and ‘open’ structure of political action.

Added: Nov 22, 2012

Investigations on Giambattista Vico in the Third Millennium. New Perspectives from Brazil, Italy, Japan and Russia

Vishlenkova E. A., Iserov A. A., Penskaja E. et al. Iss. 28. Rome: Aracne editrice, 2014.

The monograph carried out by the joint efforts of the scholars from Italy, Russia, Brazil, and Japan sheds the light on the new methods and perspectives in the interdisciplinary investigations of the Giambattista Vico's intellectual legacy. Vico was one of the most prominent European thinkers of the 18th century, lately rediscovered and proclaimed the founding father or radical reformer of a number of scientific disciplines: sociology, philosophy of history, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of language, contemporary philology, philosophical aesthetics and history of culture. The essays brought together in this book carry out different ways of approaching the Vichian legacy and demonstrate the heuristic value of the G. Vico's thought for the resolution of problems, topical in various contexts and areas of the 21th century humanities.

Added: Oct 14, 2014

Edward Said and Giambattista Vico

Iserov A. A. In bk.: Investigations on Giambattista Vico in the Third Millennium. New Perspectives from Brazil, Italy, Japan and Russia. Iss. 28. Rome: Aracne editrice, 2014. P. 177-188.

The article is devoted to the influence of Giambattista Vico on Edward Said. It claims, first, that Vico inspired Said to engage in the intellectual-political project of Postcolonial Studies, and second, that Saidian reading of Vico is the most sophisticated, detailed and fresh left interpretation of the great Neapolitan philosopher in the twentieth century.

Added: Oct 17, 2014

Impersonality, Shame, and Origins of Sociality, Or Nova scientia ex constantia philologiae eruenda

Ivanova J. In bk.: Investigations on Giambattista Vico in the Third Millennium. New Perspectives from Brazil, Italy, Japan and Russia. Iss. 28. Rome: Aracne editrice, 2014. Ch. 7. P. 109-122.

The article examines the key notions of G. Vico’s doctrine of nature, anthropology and historical process by means of the category of modality in its interpretation by Nancy S. Struever. Our study is focused on the semantic shifts of socialitas, a concept extremely important for Vichian anthropology and philosophy of history, which were performed since Vico’s earlier De Constantia jurisprudentis to the NS 44. These shifts are placed in the context of a more general process, that of transformation and complication of the modality of the Neapolitan’s texts, conceptualizing the notion of history. In our opinion, this approach could not only explain the contradictory character of the sociality in the last New Science, but could open a larger perspective in Vichian studies. It seems that the comparative analysis of conceptions put forward in Vico’s earlier writings, and modal characteristics of the texts where these conceptions are laid down would be promising a task for future researchers. Such investigations would substantially enhance the study of the Modern political discourses.

Added: Oct 14, 2014

Находчивая физика, или абиссинская философия: картезианская наука о природе в лекции Джамбаттисты Вико «О способе изучения и преподавания наук в наше время»

Иванова Ю. В., Соколов П. В. В кн.: Сад ученых наслаждений. М.: Издательский дом НИУ ВШЭ, 2017. С. 9-22.

Added: Dec 8, 2016

Апории реалистической герменевтики Джона Уиклифа

Соколов П. В. Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Философия. 2011. № 1. С. 15-28.

The axis of the publication is the impact of the late medieval logical and metaphysical theories upon the hermeneutical methodology in the exegetical practice of one of the most prominent Biblical scholars of that period - John Wyclif (1320/1324-1384), his opponents and predecessors. One of the major conclusions drawn in the article is that the late medieval interpretation of the biblical allegory as a predicative relation demonstrates the pertinence of the 14th century exegetical writings analysis in the context of the pivotal problem of the 20th century logic - the problem of the interplay between ontology and the logical analysis of language (B. Russell, G. Frege, etc.).

Added: Nov 27, 2012

Physica ingeniosa and Abyssinian philosophy: the Ambivalence of the Cartesian Physics in De ratione, V

Ivanova J., Sokolov P. Laboratorio dell'ISPF. 2016. Vol. 13. No. 8.

This study contrasts Vico's conception of the physics based on ingenium, developed in chapter five of De ratione, to its alleged counterpart, Cartesian deductive natural science. By examining the various “faces” and ramifications of Cartesian physics with a special focus on Thomas Burnet's “ingenious physics”, we demonstrate the affinity of some versions of the Cartesian hypothetical approach to Vico's rhetorical epistemology.

Added: Feb 17, 2017

Развитие некоторых представлений о пространстве от науки Нового времени до современности

Карпенко И. А. Вестник Вятского государственного гуманитарного университета. 2014. № 8. С. 10-17.

Several aspects of the transformation of ideas about the concept of space and its properties are being analyzed through a historical perspective. The research results in the particular conclusions on these ideas development in the context of modern science.

Added: Feb 13, 2014