4 HORST STEINKE VICO’S RING I QUADERNI La Scienza DEL LAB nuova - 4 siteThe attentionpresent study not onlyof Giambattista to the content Vico’s but de�ining also to work,its form . To that , is concerned with an approachScienza to the worknuova that possesses pays requi the end, Horst Steinke proposes that structure of a ring composition by which individual parts of the work relate to each other in complex but identi�iable ways. This approach, which is developed through a discussion of all �ive Books that make up the work, also leads to, or implies, certain constraints on the interpretation of Vico’s thought, resulting from an interplay of form and content. Since Vico made Homer the centerpiece of his own work, Vico’s hermeneutics are discussed in the context of his underlying philosophy of language, and both are compared with Spinoza’s thought. Finally, the so-called “Homeric question”, in Vico’s view, is addressed in an original way. Horst Steinke is an independent scholar residing in the USA,New withVico Studiesa special and interest Laboratorio in issues dell’ISPF related. to epistemology, both in science and the humanities. He is the author of articles on Vico in Horst Steinke Notes on the Scienza nuova Vico’s Ring , its Structure, and the Hermeneutics of The printed version of this book reproduces the electronic edition ISBN 9788890871221 accessible at http://www.ispf-lab.cnr.it/quaderni/2016_q04, and shares its licence CC BY-NC 3.0 IT. Homer’s Works ISPF Lab 9 788890 871221 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche I QUADERNI DEL LAB 4 Supplemento al Laboratorio dell’Ispf. Rivista elettronica di testi, saggi e strumenti Collana I QUADERNI DEL LAB Supplemento al Laboratorio dell’Ispf. Rivista elettronica di testi, saggi e strumenti www.ispf-lab.cnr.it ISSN Collana 2465-1338 Direzione: David Armando, Leonardo Pica Ciamarra, Manuela Sanna. Consiglio scientifico: Josep Martinez Bisbal (Universidad de Valencia), Giuseppe Cacciatore (Univer- sità di Napoli Federico II), Silvia Caianiello (ISPF-CNR), Maria Conforti (Università di Roma La Sapienza), Pierre Girard (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon), Matthias Kaufmann (Martin- Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), Girolamo Imbruglia (Università di Napoli L’Orientale), Pierre-François Moreau (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon), Barbara Ann Naddeo (The City College of New York), Valeria Pinto (Università di Napoli Federico II), Enrico I. Rambaldi (Università di Milano), Salvatore Tedesco (Università di Palermo), Maurizio Torrini (Università di Napoli Federico II), Amadeu Viana (Universitat de Lleida). Redazione: Roberto Evangelista, Armando Mascolo, Assunta Sansone, Alessia Scognamiglio (segretaria). Responsabile tecnico: Ruggero Cerino. © ISPF-CNR, 2016 Istituto per la storia del pensiero filosofico e scientifico moderno Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche via Porta di Massa, 1 80133 Napoli email: [email protected] Progetto grafico di Assunta Sansone ISBN 978-88-908712-2-1 I edizione: dicembre 2016 Questa opera è stata pubblicata online il 21/12/2016 sotto licenza Creative Commons “Attribuzione - Non commerciale 3.0 Italia”. Ne sono libere la copia e la diffusione a scopo di studio, a condizione dell’indicazione completa della paternità e della licenza. Per ulteriori informazioni: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/it/ Horst Steinke Vico’s Ring Notes on the Scienza nuova, its Structure, and the Hermeneutics of Homer’s Works Contents Introduction 9 1. An Outline of Scienza nuova as Ring Composition 17 2. “Corso” and “Ricorso” of Nations/Cultures: Segments A and A’ 25 3. Axioms, Principles, and Roman History: Segments B and B’ 35 3.1 Relationship of segments B and B’ 35 3.2 Vico’s “axiomatic method” 40 4. The dialectic of Vichian “philosophy” and “philology” 67 5. The relationship between “philosophy”, “philology”, and the actual world of humans 87 5.1 The ”mathematics of relationships” 88 5.2 The mediating role of “philology” 93 5.3 Trichotomy in Scienza nuova vs. trichotomy in De antiquissima 102 6. The Origins of Human Civilization: Segments C and C’ 125 6.1 Relationship of segments C and C’ 126 7. Language in Vico: “Tool” or “universal medium”? 143 8. Book III as the center of Scienza nuova’s concentric structure 187 9. Spinoza’s biblical hermeneutics and epistemology 197 9.1 Spinoza’s philosophy of science 216 10. Vico’s interpretative framework of the Homeric works 253 10.1 Vico and the “Homeric question” 262 Conclusion 291 Appendix Table of Contents of Scienza nuova 295 7 Introduction This book is conceived as “notes” on Scienza nuova for a varie- ty of reasons. First of all, it is in recognition of a century of mod- ern Vico scholarship that has investigated in depth the vast range of topics contained in his magnus opus1. Against the background of this rich heritage, the objective here is limited to developing certain nuances and accents on a few selected aspects of Vico’s body of thought represented in Scienza nuova. A further reason for keeping this book at the level of “notes” is the chosen focus on certain specific subject matters to the neglect of other Vichian topics in Scienza nuova of greater philosophical significance. Fur- thermore, these subjects are dealt with from a particular point of view or perspective which consequently casts light on some fac- ets to the exclusion of others. The principal motive for following this approach is to throw aspects of Vico’s thought into sharper relief, and to give them a more clearly delineated profile. The following three subjects will be the main focus: 1. Vico’s employment of the axiomatic method on Book I. Vico’s emulation of the language of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry with its axioms, postulates, proofs, corollaries, and so forth, has elicited a variety of explanatory attempts. On the one hand, we are faced with Vico’s high regard for Euclidean geometry, but on the other hand, Vico was adamant that «things that are not lines or num- bers will not support the method at all», as he said in his Second Response in the debate with the reviewer(s) of Liber metaphysicus (Metaphysics), the first volume of the projected, but not produced, three-volume De Antiquissima Italorum Sapientia (On the Most An- cient Wisdom of the Italians)2. The subject matter of Scienza nuova certainly falls into the category of «things that are not lines or numbers». So why would Vico violate his own maxim that plays a key role in his repudiation of Cartesianism? There is the well- known early modern tradition of framing arguments in Euclide- 9 Horst Steinke an terminology, for example, by Bacon, Descartes, and Spinoza, however, it has not been possible to make the case that Vico fol- lowed in their steps3. And it is this difference, this divergence, which may provide a mode of access to Vico’s choice of Euclid- ean language. Of special interest in this regard is Spinoza’s Ethics due to its tightly managed axiomatic development. It is hoped that a characterization of Spinoza’s work will provide the requi- site means of comparing and/or contrasting Vico’s handling of the axiomatic method. 2. The terminology of “philosophy” and “philology” as used in Scien- za nuova. One of the key statements is without doubt that «the philosophers failed […] in not giving certainty to their reasonings by appeal to the authority of the philologians, and likewise […] the latter failed […] in not taking care to give their authority the sanction of the truth by appeal to the reasoning of the philoso- phers» (§ 140). Apart from ascertaining Vico’s intended meaning of each term, this raises the question of their relationship. It has been variously described as «unidad (unity)», «allianza (alliance)», «ricongiunzione (re-conjunction)», «circolarità virtuosa (virtuous circu- larity)», «reciproco (reciprocal)», and as «rapprochement»4. In these notes, an attempt will be made to place these two key approaches in Vico’s overall epistemological framework, in fact, within the formal (i.e. the tripartite) framework that he already developed in Liber metaphysicus. In other words, do “philosophy” and “philolo- gy” have analogous counterparts (to “metaphysics” – “mathe- matics” – “physics”) in the earlier work, and if so, in what re- spect? 3. Vico’s hermeneutics of the Homeric texts in Book III of Scienza nuova. It has been a staple of Vichian scholarship – with notable exceptions, of course – to hold that Vico emulated Spinoza in his approach to, and investigative methodology of, ancient texts, in Spinoza’s case the text being the Hebrew Bible, and particular- ly the Pentateuch5. The point of view that we will pursue here re- lates to this question only tangentially, not directly. Our main in- 10 Vico’s Ring terest lies in grasping Vico’s idiosyncratic approach to the Ho- meric writings, and in this respect, it will be examined how spe- cific aspects of Spinoza’s hermeneutics might be related to Vi- co’s own practice, and be relevant to casting it into more pro- nounced relief. Thus, the question of Vico’s overt or covert6 “Spinozism”7 per se will essentially be sidestepped in the present discussion. No discussion of Vico’s treatment of Homer in Book III can leave out of consideration the status itself that it occupies and commands in the entire work. For Vico, the Homeric poems «provide the supreme testing ground for his theory of poetry and, consequently, for the entire movement of Scienza nuova» 8. To call Book III central to Scienza nuova can be said in two senses, first in the sense of being fundamental9 and secondly, by virtue of being placed precisely midway through the book10. It remains to be seen whether, and how, the contents of the other Books dialectically relate to Book III, and how Book III radiates back into the rest of the work.