The Rehabilitation of Myth: Vico's 'New Science'Cambridge University Press, 2002 M05 2 - 292 pages In this important essay, Joseph Mali argues that Vico's New Science must be interpreted according to Vico's own clues and rules of interpretation, principally his claim that the 'master-key' of his New Science is the discovery of myth. Following this lead Mali shows how Vico came to forge his new scientific theories about the mythopoeic constitution of consciousness, society, and history by reappraising, or 'rehabilitating' the ancient and primitive mythical traditions which still persist in modern times. He further relates Vico's radical redefinition of these traditions as the 'true narrations' of all religious, social, and political practices in the 'civil world' to his unique historical depiction of Western civilisation as evolving in a-rational and cyclical motions. On this account, Mali elaborates the wider, distinctly 'revisionist', implications of Vico's New Science for the modern human sciences. He argues that inasmuch as the New Science exposed the linguistic and other cultural systems of the modern world as being essentially mythopoeic, it challenges not only the Christian and Enlightenment ideologies of progress in his time, but also the main cultural ideologies of our time. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ancient antiquity argue Aristotle attempt authority Autobiography Bacon believed Cambridge civil institutions claim classical common comune conatus conception concrete constitution critical cultural customs Descartes discovery divine eighteenth century Enlightenment Ernst Cassirer eternal fables fact Frank Manuel gentile Giambattista Vico gods Greek Hayden White historians Hobbes Homer human mind human nature Hume ideal ideas images imagination interpretation Isaiah Berlin knowledge language later linguistic logical Machiavelli means metaphorical metaphysical method modern modes moral myth mythical mythology mythopoeic Naples nations Natural Law Newton Newtonian norms observations original pagan perceived philologians philological philosophers physical Plato poetic poetry poets political practices primitive principles of humanity R. G. Collingwood reality reason religion religious Roman Roman mythology Rome rules savage scholars scientific sense social society sought Spinoza sublime theorists theory things thinkers thought tradition truth ultimately understand University Press Vichian Vico's Vico's New Science virtue vulgar wisdom words