Giambattista Vico Quotes
Giambattista Vico was an Italian philosopher of history, rhetorician, and jurist working in obscurity at Naples. Against the Cartesian privileging of mathematical natural science, he argued in his New Science that human beings can know the human world precisely because they have made it. The quotes below are attributed to Giambattista Vico, organized by topic.
Browse Giambattista Vico by topic
Giambattista Vico on Knowledge
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Attributed to Giambattista Vico:
“Common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire people, an entire nation, or the entire human race.”
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“Verum esse ipsum factum”
The truth itself is made. On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians (1710) -
“The truth itself is made. On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians (1710)”
Verum esse ipsum factum -
“The New Science 241 (1744)”
Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance. (Gli uomini prima sentono il necessario, dipoi badanoall’utile, appresso avvertiscono il comodo, più innanzi sidilettano del piacere, quindi si dissolvono nel lusso, e finalmente impazzano in istrappazzar -
“The New Science 144 (1744)”
Uniform ideas originating among entire peoples unknown to each other must have a common ground of truth.
Giambattista Vico on Nature
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“Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad squandering their estates.”
The New Science 241 (1744)
Giambattista Vico on Politics
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Attributed to Giambattista Vico:
“Governments must conform to the nature of the men governed.”
Giambattista Vico on Truth
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Attributed to Giambattista Vico:
“The true and the made are convertible.”
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Attributed to Giambattista Vico:
“The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
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“Uniform ideas originating among entire peoples unknown to each other must have a common ground of truth.”
The New Science 144 (1744)