DISCOURSE ON GIAMBATTISTA VICO’S PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY AND THE QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN SOCIETY

Résumé

Myths about the origins of the human society have existed in various societies from earliest civilizations. Unfortunately, one characteristic of the European Christian world of the 1600s was the conception of ancient myths primarily as legends, allegories and stories, which was not an object of historical study. Giambattista Vico changed this perception of historians concerning myths by placing them in their proper historical contexts. Rather than viewing myths as eternal stories applicable to all times and places, Vico saw them as reflecting the realities of the societies in which they were created. Vico’s novel conceptualization of Greek and Roman myths, separating past and present through his emphasis on historical context and its materiality, provided the boost for new modes of historical thinking. By criticizing the notion of essential and fixed laws, highlighting historical contexts, and emphasizing the need to understand origins and how humans develop through time by their own agency, Vico laid out the entire, embryonic, doctrine of historicism. This paper discourses Vico’s philosophy of history in relation to the origin of human society. Recognizing Vico as one of the first modern historians to emphasize the relativity of the human condition to historical context, the paper finds out that placing humans in their historical context makes the past primarily and legitimately accessible through history and other societal sciences. In the final analysis, it concludes that this retrospective assessment of Vico's historical tracing provides useful insights for a programmatic view of human history generally.