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272
phy” is to be distinguished from his own “philosophical proofs” (§ 810) that
are part of his overall epistemic system, as argued above, which also includes
his own construct of “philology”, being brought to bear in Book III as “philo-
logical proofs” (§ 839).
541
See G. Mazzotta,
The New Map of the World
,
cit., pp. 142-143, 156-160
for a more in-depth discussion of Vico’s «paradoxical logic» in his seemingly
incorrect gloss of Plato who never said that Homer had been a philosopher.
The seeming “paradox”, however, becomes intelligible when Plato’s criticism
of Homer is seen in its “competitive” moment for imputed normative su-
premacy: «But Plato’s condemnation of Homer is above all political. Plato
finds Homer politically and morally debatable […]. Finally, as a mimetic activ-
ity poetry falsifies the original truth of the idea, forces us to live in the midst
of simulacra, and hampers any original discoveries» (
ibid.
, pp. 156-157).
542
While the speculative nature of Vico’s theorizing does not lend itself to,
or demand, empirical verification to any degree of specificity, appreciation for
the daunting and bold task he took on might be enhanced by what has be-
come known about the ancient world(s) in the meantime. For example, in §
819, Vico highlights the importance of memory at a time when «common
script”, that is, the alphabet and alphabetic writing, was not yet invented. This
age is dealt with in D. Schmandt-Besserat,
Record Keeping before Writing
, in
Scrit-
tura e scritture. Le figure della lingua. Atti del XXIX Convegno della Società Italiana di
Glottologia
,
Viterbo, 28-30 ottobre 2004
,
ed. by M. Mancini and B. Turchetta,
Rome, Il Calamo di Fausto Liberati, 2009, pp. 67-80. Schmandt-Besserat con-
cluded: «Like most of the greatest human achievements, writing was the final
link of a long chain of inventions. It all started in the Near East in a distant
past, when probably, early farmers began counting the products of their crops
and flocks with pebbles» (
ibid.
, p. 79).
543
For comparable conclusions regarding Vico’s and Plato’s views on po-
etry and philosophy, see G. Mazzotta,
The New Map of the World
, cit., p. 143.
The discussion could certainly be expanded to deal more fully with the overall
epistemic systems of both Vico and Spinoza; for example, by placing Vico’s
epistemic trichotomy side-by-side with Spinoza’s tripartite hierarchy of
knowledge. In that case, our present focus on a key aspect alone would need
to be (re-)considered in relation to the complete epistemic framework. For a
more in-depth comparison of Vico and Spinoza on this aspect, based on a
reading of
Ethics
, see F. Valagussa,
Vico. Gesto e poesia
, preface by V. Vitiello,
Rome, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2013, pp. 112-115, concluding: «La ra-
zionalità può anche essere il risultato ultimo del cammino storico del genere
umano, ma non per questo è il luogo dell’intera ricchezza che la storia ha pro-
dotto […]. […] Vico rifiuta esattamente la pretesa di individuare nella raziona-