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Robert C. Miner. Vico: Genealogist of Modernity.


Notre Dame Notre Dame IPA: [nɔtʁ dam] is French for Our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the United States of America, Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press The University of Notre Dame Press is a university press that is part of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United States. External link
  • University of Notre Dame Press
, 2002. xvi + 215 pp. index. bibl. $37.50. ISBN ISBN
abbr.
International Standard Book Number


ISBN International Standard Book Number

ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 
: 0-268-03468-0.

In this compact book, which is not only an exegesis exegesis

Scholarly interpretation of religious texts, using linguistic, historical, and other methods. In Judaism and Christianity, it has been used extensively in the study of the Bible. Textual criticism tries to establish the accuracy of biblical texts.
 of Vico but also a plea for the Catholic religion, Miner intends to refute Benedetto Croce's and Isaiah Berlin's secular interpretation of Vichian philosophy. Miner acknowledges his debt to Alasdair MacIntyre Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (born January 12, 1929 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology. , who should warrant an Aristotelian Vico, able to keep his ground in a memorable fight with Nietzsche. This explains the Nietzschean title, paradoxically adopted by Miner, who tries to prove that genealogy (pace Foucault) is not necessarily impious and can be used ad maiorem Dei gloriam Ad maiorem Dei gloriam or ad majorem Dei gloriam (when an "i" functions as a consonant in Latin, it is often represented with a "j"), also known by the abbreviation AMDG, is the motto of the Society of Jesus, commonly referred to as the Jesuits. . This ambitious program, clearly stated in the preface, is pursued in three parts, each divided into various chapters, written with ease and enthusiasm.

Part 1, "Humbling Modern Pride: Genealogy in the Early Vico," is a summary of Vico's early thought, founded on De nostri temporis studiorum ratione (1709) and De antiquissima Italorum sapientia (1710). Miner rejects Gadamer's view that Vico opposed modern science, and maintains that the anti-Cartesian orientation of De ratione does not entail a total condemnation of modernity. Miner's Vico, a far cry from Mark Lilla's antimodern thinker, disliked the French geometrical method, while showing a marked preference for Galileo's and Bacon's experimental method, viewed as an application of topical reasoning. According to Miner, the Vichian approach to mathematics is "an attempt to deflate (file format, compression) deflate - A compression standard derived from LZ77; it is reportedly used in zip, gzip, PKZIP, and png, among others.

Unlike LZW, deflate compression does not use patented compression algorithms.
 its pretensions to absolute knowledge while preserving its value as a participation in metaphysical truth" (24). The verum-factum distinction, the gist of De antiquissima, is not a secular but a theological principle, grounded on Trinitarian premises.

Part 2, "The Development of Modern Historical Consciousness in the Diritto universale," illustrates Vico's brand of historicism his·tor·i·cism  
n.
1. A theory that events are determined or influenced by conditions and inherent processes beyond the control of humans.

2. A theory that stresses the significant influence of history as a criterion of value.
, developed in the Diritto universale, published in 1720-21 and positively reviewed by the Calvinist Jean Leclerc. Miner acknowledges in the preface the help received from Giorgio Pinton, whose recently published translation of the Diritto universale is controversial. Miner, who believes that historical consciousness is the necessary premise of any genealogical project, and, following Nietzsche, makes a sharp distinction between historical spirit and historical scholarship, indirectly absolves Vico's questionable scholarship and condemns American philosophers for their lack of Historismus.

In his Diritto universale, Vico argues that "natural law has both a metaphysical origin in eternal truth and an historical origin in the customs of human society" (38). Thus Vico refused the position of the skeptics (Epicurus, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, and Bayle) who, more or less explicitly, viewed justice as a human construct, based on fear and chance, and brought to perfection Grotius' system by showing that natural law is an essential part of "the historical development of customs and the laws that grow out of these customs" (37-38). Although he stresses the affinity of Vico's thought with Augustine's De civitate Dei, Miner is aware that "Vico's willingness to embrace distinctively modern notions of intelligibility and system, as well as his relative confidence in the ability of human reason to decipher the historical process, sets him apart from Augustine" (41).

In part 3 Miner shows how Vico developed the historicism of the Diritto universale into the genealogical discourse of the Scienza nuova (1725, 1730, 1744). At this point of his tour de force, Miner sets the stage for a contest between the two supposed champions of genealogical thought: the Catholic Vico and the secular Nietzsche. Such a contest takes place in the conclusion and is predictably won by Vico, which would make aficionados of Italian culture happy were it not for the fact that Miner, despite his ability to make intelligent remarks on details, was unable to produce a coherent and convincing intellectual history.

According to MacIntyre, man is "a teller of stories that aspire to truth" (A. MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study of Moral Theory [Notre Dame, 1981], 201). Miner is a case in point, since he has written a quixotic quix·ot·ic   also quix·ot·i·cal
adj.
1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.

2.
 fiction that has no historical basis. He deals with abstractions such as Augustinianism and Cartesianism, and leaves out the great models of Christian thought offered by Arnauld and Malebranche, engaged in a dispute that shook the Catholic world in Vico's times (see D. Moreau, Deux cartesiens: la polemique entre Antoine Arnauld et Nicolas Malebranche [Paris, 1999]; idem, "The Malebranche-Arnauld Debate," in The Cambridge Companion to Malebranche, ed. S. Nadler [Cambridge, 2000], 87-111). Miner, who ignores that according to recent scholarship the Scienza nuova was considered heretical he·ret·i·cal  
adj.
1. Of or relating to heresy or heretics.

2. Characterized by, revealing, or approaching departure from established beliefs or standards.
 by the Holy Office and escaped condemnation only because Vico was judged a dimwit dim·wit  
n. Slang
A stupid person.



dimwitted adj.
, bases his conclusions on literal interpretations of Vichian texts without taking into account the ecclesiastic ECCLESIASTIC. A clergyman; one destined to the divine ministry, as, a bishop, a priest, a deacon. Dom. Lois Civ. liv. prel. t. 2, s. 2, n. 14.  censorship that stunted Italian culture and obliged writers to hide their real thoughts (see Church, Censorship and Culture in Early Modern Italy, ed. G. Fragnito, trans. A. Belton [Cambridge, 2001], 1-12).

GUSTAVO COSTA

Emeritus, University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States).  

Berkeley
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Author:Costa, Gustavo
Publication:Renaissance Quarterly
Article Type:Book Review
Date:Dec 22, 2003
Words:796
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