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Horst Steinke

76

LXXX (§ 260): «Men come naturally to the feudal system wherever

they see a possibility of retaining in it or gaining from it a good and

great share of utility».

XCI (§ 280): «The contests waged by the orders in the cities for

equality of rights are the most powerful means of making the com-

monwealths great».

CVI (§ 314): «Doctrines must take their beginning from that of the

matters of which they treat»

153

.

CXII (§ 323): «Intelligent men take for law whatever impartial utili-

ty dictates in each case».

CXIV (§ 326): «The natural equity of fully developed human reason

is a practice of wisdom in affairs of utility, since wisdom in its broad

sense is nothing but the science of making such use of things as their

nature dictates».

It is of course anachronistic

154

to use such terms as “theory”

and “pre-theoretic” in connection with Vico and his time. Ra-

ther, as already noted, Vico spoke of «philology (that is, the doc-

trine of all the institutions that depend on human choice; for ex-

ample, all histories of the languages, customs, and deeds of peo-

ples in war and peace)»

155

(§ 7). While it cannot be assumed

ab ovo

that Vico’s term «doctrine» is synonymous with the technical, re-

stricted meaning of «theory» as employed at present

156

, they in-

tersect to a significant degree, as can be read into § 357, which

was classified as «philological» in the preceding introductory

statement (§ 351): «The great fragments of antiquity, hitherto

useless to science because they lay begrimed, broken, and scat-

tered, shed great light when cleaned, pieced together, and re-

stored». Vico’s «philology» thus has the same function as “scien-

tific theory” in placing piecemeal and seemingly disparate, unre-

lated factual information into a coherent framework

157

.

§ 357 is of special interest at the present time also for another

reason. Besides aiding in clarifying Vico’s sense of «philology», it

makes reference to a sphere that is outside of both «philosophy»

and «philology»: «the […] fragments of antiquity», that is, actual

human history (preserved incompletely)

158

. By the spotlight being