165 / 298
Vico’s Ring
165
ries
, ed. by L. Formigari and D. Gambarara, Amsterdam-Philadelphia, John
Benjamins, 1995, pp. 115-127.
298
Vico’s concern with the nexus between language and the civic world is
explicated in greater detail by L. Formigari,
Signs, Science and Politics: Philosophies
of Language in Europe 1700-1830,
trans. by W. Dodd, Amsterdam-Philadelphia,
John Benjamins, 1993, pp. 69-78, originally appeared in Italian as
L’esperienza e
il segno. La filosofia del linguaggio tra Illuminismo e Restaurazione,
Rome, Editori
Riuniti, 1990, stating: «The monopoly of language […] is the principle of poli-
tical power […]. It is this discovery which leads Vico to formulate a theory of
language origin capable of explaining the genesis of power in pre-political so-
cieties and at the same time to put forward a theory of language evolution that
accounts for the transition to institutional forms of juridical equality. It is in
the context of this undertaking that he sketches out a general theory of lan-
guage» (p. 69). As a matter of fact, subsequently Formigari questions whether
Vico’s reflections on language can be even considered «a general theory of
language», since there is no unified theory of change from gestures to articu-
lated expression; no theory of the transition to the stage of arbitrary signs; no
real theory for vulgar (vernacular) tongues as such (
ibid.
, pp. 82-83).
299
See D. Ph. Verene,
Vico’s Science of Imagination
, cit., pp. 182-183, where
E. Grassi’s exposition of Vichian “rhetoric” is highlighted; cfr. E. Grassi,
Rhetoric as Philosophy: The Humanist Tradition
, University Park, Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1980. Outside of Vico studies, the role of metaphor
has been characterized as “strategic” in dealing with values and problems of a
society (see J. Ch. Crocker,
The Social Functions of Rhetorical Forms
, in
The Social
Use of Metaphor,
ed. by J. D. Sapir and J. Ch. Crocker, University Park, Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania Press, 1977, pp. 33-66, p. 38). Even when the cognitive
dimensions of metaphor are placed in the foreground, as in scientific dis-
course, social implications, and hence the potential for conflict and conten-
tion, are never buried very deeply beneath the surface (see e.g. Th. L. Brown,
Making Truth: Metaphor in Science,
Urbana-Chicago, University of Illinois Press,
2003, pp. 49-52; E. Pauwels,
Mind the Metaphor
, in «Nature», 500, 29 August
2013, pp. 534-524).
300
As Di Cesare stated: «Conoscenza è nella fase poetica
creazione
del
mondo attraverso i tropi e in particolare attraverso la metafora (At the poetic
stage, knowledge is the
creation
of the world by means of the tropes, and in
particular by means of the metaphor)» (Id.,
Sul concetto di metafora in G. B. Vico
,
cit., p. 334; italics original). And as Battistini said: «Myth and poetry, for Vico,
are not an imperfect or corrupt way of thinking. On the contrary, they are the
original means of knowledge» (Id.,
On the Encyclopedic Structure of the New Science
,
cit., p. 30); as well as Coseriu: «Tanto la poesía (el arte) como el lenguaje, al