Vico’s Ring
131
to speak of diversity and even heterogeneity. A close reading of
each section, on the other hand, shows that there is a common
thread to all of them: each factor, in its eventual long-drawn-out
historical working out («the course the nations run»), is associat-
ed with the sociopolitical-governmental framework of human
civilization, if not to an exclusive degree, then predominantly at
their core
288
. Through a prism thus faceted, certain parts of Book
II stand out particularly; their inordinate extensiveness relative to
the whole of Book II, and to the surrounding parts, can be rec-
ognized as being a function of their centrality. This is the case
most directly for Section V of Book II, “Poetic Politics”, that
discurses about many of the topics taken up in Book IV. How-
ever, the backward-looking references of Book IV are not re-
stricted to the section on “Poetic Politics” but encompass also
the immediately preceding section on “Poetic Economy” which
deals with the structure and order of the archaic household as
the first civic institution
289
. In this perspective, the encyclopedic
breadth of Book II reveals itself as possessing more structure
and intentionality than may be apparent at first
290
.
The only other subject matter of comparable breadth and
depth in Book II is language, found in Section II, entitled “Poet-
ic Logic” (§§ 400-501). However, also in connection with this
fundamental characteristic of human civilization, Vico does not
lose sight of its relation to, and role in, creating institutions of a
civic nature, as the conditions of possibility of other cultural
achievements
291
. An exposition of Vico’s philosophy of language
has to be cognizant of the nexus of language and sociopolitical
world, even if
prima facie
philosophy of language is studied
sui gen-
eris
292
. Due to the position of language at the core of Vico’s re-
flections, both ontologically and on the basis of its (literary) arti-
facts, certain aspects of his philosophy of language merit closer
attention, particularly since they seem to be associated with some
ambiguity in Vico studies. This will therefore be taken up in the
next section.