Giambattista Vico

The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico

Vico's intellectual autobiography and development of his historical philosophy

About the author

Giambattista Vico
Giambattista Vico

Italian philosopher of history whose New Science proposed that human beings can understand history because they made it. He argued against Descartes that the humanities require their own methods distinct from natural science. His theory of historical cycles (corso e ricorso) anticipated 19th-century historicism.

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