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Giambattista Vico

Giambattista Vico Books

Philosopher

Giambattista Vico was an Italian philosopher, historian, and literary theorist, born on June 23, 1668, and died on January 21, 1744. His philosophical ideas have had a profound impact on later generations, particularly in the fields of historical philosophy and literary theory.

The New Science of Giambattista Vico

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New Science

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Vico

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“The most sublime labour of poetry is to give sense and passion to insensate things; and it is characteristic of children to take inanimate things in their hands and talk to them in play as if they were living persons... This philological-philosophical axiom proves to us that in the world's childhood men were by nature sublime poets...”

Play Poetry Childhood Poets Sublime

Book:New Science

Source: New Science

“One truly understands only what one can create.”

Author:Giambattista Vico

“But the nature of our civilized minds is so detached from the senses, even in the vulgar, by abstractions corresponding to all theabstract terms our languages abound in, and so refined by the art of writing, and as it were spiritualized by the use of numbers, because even the vulgar know how to count and reckon, that it is naturally beyond our power to form the vast image of this mistress called "Sympathetic Nature.”

Knows Writing Mind Art Use Form Language Term Numbers Know How Senses Civilized Vulgar Abstraction Mistress Sympathetic Refined Detached Corresponding Art Of Writing

Author:Giambattista Vico

“Governments must be conformable to the nature of the governed; governments are even a result of that nature.”

Government Results

Author:Giambattista Vico

“Political Science carries inseparably with it the study of piety, and that he who is not pious cannot be truly wise.”

Political Study Wise Carrie Political Science Piety Pious

Author:Giambattista Vico

“Governments must conform to the nature of the men governed.”

Men Government He Man Conform

Book:The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Source: The New Science of Giambattista Vico

“Understanding arises through making”

Understanding Arise

Author:Giambattista Vico

“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”

Mind Ideas Body Spirit Order Language Principles Communication Universal Property Language Words Etymology

Book:The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Source: The New Science of Giambattista Vico

“Uniform ideas originating among entire peoples unknown to each other must have a common ground of truth.”

Ideas Truth Common Uniforms Common Ground

Book:The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Source: The New Science of Giambattista Vico

“The nature of peoples is first crude, then severe, then benign, then delicate, finally dissolute.”

Firsts Nature Delicate Fierce Severe Crude Benign

Book:The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Source: The New Science of Giambattista Vico

“Common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race.”

Humans Nations Common Race Class Judgment Reflection Common Sense Human Race

Book:The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Source: The New Science of Giambattista Vico

“The criterion and rule of the true is to have made it. Accordingly, our clear and distinct idea of the mind cannot be a criterion of the mind itself, still less of other truths. For while the mind perceives itself, it does not make itself.”

Mind Doe Made Stills Ideas Clear Made It Perceive Criteria

Book:Vico

Source: Vico

“Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance.”

Men Feels Firsts Looks Stills Next Grows Pleasure Comfort Waste Mad Luxury Substance Utility Decadence

Book:The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Source: The New Science of Giambattista Vico

“Metaphysics abstracts the mind from the senses, and the poetic faculty must submerge the whole mind in the senses. Metaphysics soars up to universals, and the poetic faculty must plunge deep into particulars.”

Mind Whole Senses Faculty Poetic Metaphysics Soar Plunge

Book:The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Source: The New Science of Giambattista Vico

“It is true that men themselves made this world of nations... but this world without doubt has issued from a mind often diverse, at times quite contrary, and always superior to the particular ends that men had proposed to themselves.”

Men World Mind Made Ends Nations Doubt This World Particular Contrary Superiors Diverse Self Made

Book:The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Source: The New Science of Giambattista Vico

“The straight line cannot proceed through the torturous twists of life.”

Motivational Lines Twists Straight Lines

Author:Giambattista Vico

“People first feel things without noticing them, then notice them with inner distress and disturbance, and finally reflect on them with a clear mind.”

People Feels Mind Firsts Clear Distress Noticing Disturbance Clear Minds

Author:Giambattista Vico

“Imagination is more robust in proportion as reasoning power is weak.”

Imagination Weak Reasoning Proportion Robust

Book:The New Science of Giambattista Vico

Source: The New Science of Giambattista Vico

About the Author

Born: June 23, 1668
Died: January 21, 1744
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 18

Related Topics

Mind Firsts Ideas Men Clear Common Feels Government Language Made

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

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