141 / 298
Vico’s Ring
141
anschauung
) dans la philosophie allemande (One has to regard the Vichian no-
tion of “sects of times” as the “general spirit of a people”, in Montesquieu, or
as “spirit of the times” (
Zeitgeist
) and “world view” (
Weltanschauung
) in German
philosophy)» (
Principes d’une Science Nouvelle
, cit., p. XXXIX).
289
Cfr. V. Hösle,
Einleitung
, cit., pp. CCVII-CCXII, for moving back-and-
forth between Book II and IV in elucidating Vico’s thoughts on law and the
history of law.
290
In this connection, reference should be made to the emphasis placed
by A. M. Damiani on reading
Scienza nuova
in terms of its sociopolitical dimen-
sion, for which see the chapter entitled «La dimensión política de la
Scienza
Nuova
» in Id.,
La dimensión política de la Scienza Nuova
y otros estudios sobre Giam-
battista Vico,
Buenos Aires,
Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires, 1998, pp.
35-74. According to Damiani, «[u]no de los aspectos de la
Scienza Nuova
más
descuidados en la historia de los estudios viquianos es la teoría política que
reconoce al hombre como autor del mundo civil ([o]ne of the most neglected
aspects of the
Scienza nuova
in the history of Vico studies is the political theory
that recognizes man as the author of the civic world)» (p. 35). See also his
view on “poetic wisdom” i.e. Book II (pp. 48-51), which revolves around «the
civic world».
291
Particularly relevant in this regard is Chapter VI (§§ 473-493), intro-
duced, and summarized, by the statement: «Along with this first birth of char-
acters [the alphabet] and language was also born law […]». The three major
sections (on the constitutive nature of language, the civic role of households,
governance of communities) are two-thirds of Book II, which is thus (indi-
rectly) suggestive of topic prominence.
292
F. Ratto, in his review of A. M. Damiani,
La dimensión política de la Scien-
za nuova
, pleaded for a broader approach: «Sin embargo, la lectura propuesta
por Damiani […] parece caracterizarse por una unilateralidad. […] Se debe
recorder que la
Scienza nuova
es también una obra teórica que enfrenta otras
problemáticas significativas, como por ejemplo, el análisis del lenguaje, la
atención por el derecho, la epistemología, la importancia del mito […] (How-
ever, the reading proposed by Damiani […] appears characterized by a certain
one-sidedness. […] one should recall that the
Scienza nuova
is also a theoretical
work that addresses other significant issues, such as, for example, analysis of
language, the study of law, epistemology, the importance of myth […])» (Id.,
review in «Educação e Filosofia»
,
15, 2001, 29, pp. 297-302, p. 302). Similarly,
Caianiello states: «Ciò che le età contengono, nelle versioni successive della
Scienza nuova
si amplia a coinvolgere contemporaneamente tutti gli aspetti della
cultura, molto oltre la sola caratterizzazione delle forme di governo […] (With
respect to what the ages comprise, in the successive versions of
Scienza nuova