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Horst Steinke
120
Pascucci,
G. B. Vico: el establecimiento del orden natural a través de la noción de provi-
dencia
, dissertation, Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1994, online
at
Portale Vico
,
< www.giambattistavico.it>, under tab
Biblioteca digitale
. See also
R. Mazzola,
Religione e provvidenza in Vico
, in «BCSV», XXVI-XXVII, 1996-
1997, pp. 101-126; G. Bedani,
Vico Revisited
, cit., pp. 215-230. Vico scholarship
on this extremely important topic is extensive; however, our consideration of
«providence» is limited to its epistemological role which does not require
commitment (at least as best as we can determine at present) to a particular
substantive interpretation.
236
In §§ 343-345, providence is described as the personification of «om-
nipotence», «infinite/eternal wisdom», and «immeasurable/eternal goodness».
We may note in passing that the ideal of equity/justice that animates much of
Vico’s reflections is not expressly referred to as part of, or alternatively, in re-
lation to, providence.
237
It is the epistemic analogue, structurally, to “rationality” vis-vis “social
life”: «[…] il
perché
e il
come
della razionalità e della socialità sembrano non co-
incidere integralmente ([…] the
why
and the
how
of rationality and social life do
not seem to fully coincide)» (M. Vanzulli,
Sulla relazione di ideale e fattuale di meta-
fisica e storia
, cit., p. 203).
As alluded to above, Vico’s incorporation of non-theoretical factors into
his framework can be seen in the context of science in general, that is, in its
practice of divising mathematical descriptions augmented by physical parame-
ters, coefficients, and constants not inherent in the mathematics. This is not
limited to the physical sciences; in the biosciences a similar melding of math-
ematics and biological parameters is the norm. See, e.g., A. Friedman,
What is
Mathematical Biology and How Useful is it?
, in «Notices of the AMS», 57, 2010, 7,
pp. 851-857; M. C. Mackey - M. Santillán,
Mathematics, Biology, and Physics: Inter-
actions and Interdependence
, in «Notices of the AMS», 52, 2005, 8, pp. 832-840.
238
On «providence», Otto stated: «Sea lo que sea lo que Vico entiende ba-
jo esta “providencia”, la
provvedenza
viquiana no es desde luego una vestidura
de fe que se le hubiera colocado por encima apresuradamente a la “Ciencia
Nueva” (Regardless of what Vico understood under “providence”, the Vi-
chian
provvedenza
, of course, is not a cloak of faith that had been hastily
thrown upon the “New Science”)» (Id.,
“Contextualidad” científica y “converti-
bilidad” filosófica
, cit., p. 171).
239
The following comments are perceptive, but do not acknowledge the
existence of a second circularity
:
«Philosophy cannot, for Vico, transpire out-
side of philology, no more than philology, without the inception within it of
the movement of philosophy, can advance one step toward its term. Their
circularity is complete even though, in the expository scheme of the “New