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Vico’s Ring
123
In view of all that has been said above on behalf of the thesis of Vico’s
trichotomous epistemological framework, the ultimate grounds of his reflec-
tions in “philosophy” are not separate or independent but rather emerge from
the complex functorial interaction of all three spheres. From this vantage
point, there is no need, or, indeed, the possibility, of another sphere of puta-
tively more fundamental or superior philosophical standing. We can therefore
concur with P. Girard: «[…] la modernità vichiana si definisce come la volon-
tà, non di sfumare la ragione, ma di offrirne una definizione allargata e più
ampia ([…] Vico’s modernity is defined by its determination, not to water
down reason, but to offer up an enlarged and more complete definition)» (Id.,
Modernità e “ragione tutto spegata” in Vico
, in
Razionalità e modernità in Vico
, cit., pp.
245-261, p. 261).
242
In Bedani’s words: « […] it is not possible for the “verum factum” and
the “vero”/“certo” perspectives to co-exist as epistemological foundations of
the same science.
They pull in opposing theoretical and methodological directions
. […]
The coexistence within the same work of a normative intention with the elab-
oration of an empirical method is necessarily an uneasy one» (Id.,
Vico Revisit-
ed
, cit., pp. 198, 211; italics original).
243
Maybe more correctly, the main topic of
Liber metaphysicus
, since
De an-
tiquissima Italorum sapientia
(
On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians
) was
planned to consist of three books,
Liber metaphysicus
being the first book only,
the other two books never having materialized as originally proposed. There-
fore, we will continue to refer to it as
De antiquissima,
as being synonymous
with
Liber metaphysicus.
244
D. R. Lachterman,
Mathematics and Nominalism in Vico’s Liber Metaphysi-
cus
, in
Sachkommentar zu Giambattista Vicos “Liber metaphysicus
”, ed. by S. Otto
and H. Viechtbauser, Munich, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1985, pp. 47-85, p. 63.
245
G. Cerchiai,
Il “padre divino di ogni ritrovato”. Aspetti dell’idea vichiani di inge-
gno,
in
Razionalità e modernità in Vico,
cit., pp. 33-49, pp. 46-47; M. Lollini,
Natu-
ra, ragione e modernità nella
Scienza nuova
di Vico
,
ibid.
, pp. 219-243, pp. 226-227;
see also Id.,
On Becoming Human: The Verum Factum
Principle and Giambattista
Vico’s Humanism
, in «MLN» (formerly «Modern Language Notes»), 127, 2012,
1, pp. S21-S31, p. S26.
246
Id.,
Natura, ragione e modernità nella
Scienza nuova
di Vico
, cit., p. 226.
247
H. Steinke,
Vico’s Three Realms
, cit.
248
In fact, Fig. 2 above is adapted from Fig. 2,
ibid.
, p. 75.
249
Such caution is especially appropriate when the theory and practice of
mathematics, both ancient and modern, is naively understood, or rather, mis-
understood.