Vico’s Three Realms. From “Liber metaphysicus” to Category Theory

This essay examines Vico’s De Antiquissima (Metaphysics) with a view to delineating, first, the three fundamental realms in Vico’s epistemology of science – metaphysics, mathematics, “physics” – and, secondly, Vico’s conception of their interrelationships. The study argues that Vico’s epistemology finds certain analogues both in actual mathematical practice as well as in modern conceptual mathematics (Category Theory). This correspondence, the article argues, makes Vico’s epistemology still relevant to modern mathematical physics.