Vico, Giovanni Battista
See also: Philosophy Biographies
(jovän´ne bät-te´stä ve´ko), 1668-1744, Italian philosopher and historian, also known as Giambattista Vico, b. Naples. In 1699, Vico became professor of rhetoric at the Univ. of Naples, and in 1734 he was appointed historiographer to the king of Naples. Vico is regarded by many as the first modern historian; he was the first to formulate a systematic method of historical research, and he developed a theory of history that was far in advance of his times. For Vico, history is the account of the birth and development of human societies and their institutions. He thus departed from previous systems of writing historyeither as the biographies of great men, or as the development of God's will. Opposing the antihistorical elements of the prevailing Cartesianism (see Descartes, René ), he asserted that history is a valid object of human knowledge because man himself created history. Vico urged the study of language,......
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