Horst Steinke, Vico’s Ring. Notes on the“Scienza nuova”, its Structure, and the Hermeneutics of Homer’s Works

Vico’s Ring

163

intellectual genius in the logico-deductive method (i.e. deductive

completeness, in modern terms), Vico took away from Euclid

the primacy of premises and foundational concepts (i.e. the no-

tion of descriptive completeness). The logico-deductive process,

therefore, could never be compelling to him as a rival or re-

placement of natural language.

Humans are indeed able to step “outside” language, and rein-

vent themselves, and their language

389

. Thus, it is also possible to

speak of the “relation of language to the world” in language,

which becomes a meta-language

390

in the process. Perhaps,

plastic-

ity

is a suitable graphic term to connote this potential of language

to be put to use at any desired level of discourse

391

This brings to a conclusion our notes on the segments of

Sci-

enza nuova

that correspond to, and complement, each other, con-

sidered in a concentric manner. However, this leaves out the part

of the work that Vico placed at the center – both literally and

conceptually–, that is, Book III, “Discovery of the true Homer”.

We will now touch on certain aspects of it, among which reflec-

tions on Vico’s philosophy of language will continue to play an

important part.

Notes to Chapter 7

293

We are using “philosophy of language” loosely and out of convenience;

E. Coseriu stated that J. Trabant has shown that Vico’s reflections on lan-

guage do not constitute a philosophy of language in the strict sense but rather

a general theory of semiotics (Id.,

El lugar de los universales fantásticos en la filosofía

de Vico

, in

Pensar para un nuevo siglo

, vol. I, cit., pp. 3-22, p. 21; for a full account

of Trabant’s interpretation, see Id.,

Vico’s New Science of Ancient Signs

trans. by

S. Ward, foreword by D. Ph. Verene, London-New York, Routledge, 2004,

originally published in German as

Neue Wissenschaft von alten Zeichen

, Frankfurt,

Suhrkamp, 1994; the sematological approach has been developed further into

a «semiotic-pragmatic» framework in S. Marienburg,

Zeichenhandeln. Sprachden-

ken bei Giambattista Vico und Johann Georg Hamann,

Tübingen, Gunter Narr Ver-

lag, 2006).