Be ready to think hard with others and explore the range of knowledge from early modern physics to poetics, astronomy, literature, law, politics, and theology.

Studying one of the great classics of intellectual reasoning provides a foundation for anyone pursuing philosophy, history, sociology, religious studies, and the origins of what we call today the social sciences – the scientific method applied to human civilizations. from publication: Undisciplined theory Matthew. Class requirements will include two oral reports and two papers. Download scientific diagram Frontispiece of the 1744 edition of Giambattista Vicos New science. While each of Vico’s five books will be analyzed in detail, Book 1, “Establishing Principles,” and Book 2, “Poetic Wisdom,” will be given the most thorough scrutiny. A pioneering treatise that aroused great controversy when it was first published in 1725, Vico's New Science is acknowledged today to be one of the few works. Based on Anthony Grafton’s insightful preface to the edition, preliminary lectures will situate the Neapolitan philosopher and his various writings in the context of early modern historiography and biblical studies, with an emphasis on his universal chronology and the central role of Roman civilization. Using my 1999 Penguin translation as the textbook, we will undertake a close reading of this astonishingly prescient work. A pioneering treatise that aroused great controversy when it was first published in 1725, Vicos New Science is acknowledged today to be one of the few. The third and definitive edition of the New Science (1744) by Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) is a learned and ambitious attempt to decipher the history, mythology, and laws of the ancient world and its powerful analysis influenced thinkers and writers as varied as Herder, Karl Marx, Nietzsche, and James Joyce.

New Science by Giambattista Vico