Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) rejected Descartes's emphasis on the mathematical and natural sciences, and argued that we can understand history more adequately than nature, since it is we who have made it.

Short Biography:

He believed that the study of language, ritual, and myth was a way of understanding earlier societies. His cyclical theory of history (the birth, development, and decline of human societies) was put forward in New Science in 1725.

His belief that the study of language and rituals was a better way of understanding early societies was a departure from the traditional ways of writing history as either biographies, or as preordained God's will. He was born in Naples, and was professor of rhetoric there in 1698. He became historiographer to the King of Naples in 1735.

Why is Giambattista Vico famous?

Giambattista Vico was an Italian philosopher, the founder of the modern philosophy of history.

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Tags: history, founder, myth, professor, historiographer

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Category: Philosophers  - ( Philosophers Archive)

Date Added: 04 July '12

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