Journal of the History of Philosophy

A Genetic Interpretation of Divine Providence in Vico's New Science SANDRA RUDNICK LUFT IN A RECENTARTICLEJames Morrison presents an interpretation of the master key by which the New Science of Giambattista Vico is to be read.' In the New Science, Morrison argues, Vico gave a "philosophical-scientific account--in terms of 'intelligible genera' (logical concepts)--of poetic-rhetorical thought and language--'imaginative genera' (metaphor)" of the first men. In doing so Vico himself chose to express his "conceptual philosophical truths in the form of imaginative rhetoric. ''~ Vico's claim that the imaginative poetic characters of the first men were to be understood as rationaMntelligible ones is the key, Morrison believes, to the understanding of the imaginative genera of the New Science. Vico's poetic characters differed from the original metaphors in that whereas the latter were historically true (that is, the means by which the first men described what they did and made), Vico's, as the creation of a rational philosopher, were ironic. 3 Morrison uses this master key to interpret the conception of divine providence in the New Science. In terms of Vico's understanding of the mind of early peoples, divine providence was for all nations (including the Hebrews) a poetic character by which "whatever men themselves were doing" was attributed to God. Morrison's assertion is that within the New Science Vico himself made use--in this case ironic use--of the metaphor of providence. Vico called ' "How to Interpret the Idea of Divine Providence in Vico's New Science," Philosophy and Rhetoric 12 (Fall 1979): 256-61. See also Morrison, "Vico and Spinoza," Journal of the History of Ideas 41 (January-March 198o): 52-53, for a similar argument. ' "How to Interpret," p. 256. Donald Verene has called the making of such metaphors an act of recollective rather than primary fantasia and has given as an example the storia ideale eterna CVico's Philosophy of Imagination," Social Research 43 (Autumn 1976): 419. [151] 152 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY the New Science a rational civil theology of divine providence because it "rationalizes--interprets--into intelligible genera--the poetic theology of divine providence of the theological poets.... The idea of divine providence , both in the New Science and in human history, is a poetic expression for a philosophic historical truth.., that what men by their actions intend to do is not what in fact results from them." For Morrison divine providence is, in short, a "metaphor for the irony of history"--Vico's well-known version of the principle of the "heterogeneity between ends and results.TM The relation between Vico's conception of providence and the principle of the heterogeneity of ends is a persistent problem in Vichian literature, concerning, as it does, the transcendency or immanency of the creative cause of historical process. Morrison's interpretation does not take account of the most recent discussions: articles by Maria Goretti and Isaiah Berlin, each of which rejects that identification (though for different reasons), and my own.5 Berlin's article rejects the identification of Vico's providence with eighteenth - and nineteenth-century versions of the heterogeneity of ends because they represent an "intelligible teleology" in which the ultimate perfectability of man functions as final cause. They provide a logical or rational demonstration of the ultimate purpose of human history, a "claim to be able to construct by human means what god alone can create," and as such are a usurpation of the role of Providence.6 Goretti's argument, on the other hand, is made to protect the immanency of "providence," which is, she claims, a "kind of metaphor.., masking the principle of the autonomy of human actions." Like Berlin, however, she rejects the identification of Vico's providence with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century versions of the heterogeneity of ends. That principle, she argues, presupposes belief in a "divine plan which, though not derivable from god, represents 'confirmation' of a rational order .... Smith's image of the hidden hand [for example] presents the transcendent god as the revelation of human ratio... [a conception compatible with medieval] cosmologies such as the Cartesian. ''7 4 "How to Interpret," pp. 258-59. 5 Goretti, "The Heterogenesis of Ends in...