Pagina 19 - BCSV, XLI, 2

REFLECTIONS ON THE IDEAL ETERNAL HISTORY 19
number of these were already available such as, for example, the alter-
native variations of providential theory offered by Joachim of Flora,
Bossuet and St. Augustine, along with classical models offered by such
as Polybius, and, more recently, Bodin’s non-providential theory of sov-
ereignty. Indeed, Vico recognized Bodin explicitly as a rival to his own
theory of the nature of the state by devoting an entire chapter of the
Scienza nuova to a refutation of Bodin’s account of the succession of
political states10. To be accepted as correct, then, though it was neces-
sary that it should give rise to an intelligible view of a way in which our
present world might have arisen, this would not suffice to show that it
was the way in which, in fact, it had. What was required in addition was
a further unarguable support: that it should be based upon a sound
metaphysics, i.e. one which could ground the main features of his his-
tory of humanity11. Hence Vico’s recourse to his metaphysics of the
human mind, of which he offers several descriptions, different aspects
of which are to be found in Books I and IV of the Scienza nuova.
IV. I shall start here with the most concise statement he provides:
Men at first feel without perceiving, then they perceive with a troubled and
agitated spirit, finally they reflect with a clear mind12.
10 I have argued elsewhere that Vico’s theory, despite its invocations of providence
is not truly providential in that it does not require a single substantial thesis drawn sole-
ly from orthodox Christian belief. See, my Theism and Vico’s Philosophy and History of
Humanity, in Il mondo di Vico/Vico nel mondo, ed. by F. Ratto, Sansepolcro, 1999.
11 Sn44, 331: «But in the night of thick darkness enveloping the the earliest antiq-
uity, so remote from ourselves, there shines the eternal and never failing light of a truth
beyond all question: that the world of civil society has certainly been made by men and
that its principles are therefore to be found within the modifications of our own mind».
This famous pronouncement underlies the requirement for his metaphysics of the
human mind, and supports his account of what he took from Plato in the
Autobiography.
12 Ivi, 218. The translation of Vico’s avvertire here as ‘perceiving’ is not particular-
ly happy. Avvertire could have a variety of literary meanings ranging from ‘to consider’
to ‘to look at carefully’. The Latin advertere, which Vico may have drawn on has the
sense of ‘turning [the mind] towards’ and hence of ‘directing one’s attention towards’
. For my present purpose the exact meaning of these three cognitive states here is not
important, since, as we shall see, they become irrelevant if my over-all thesis is correct.