The Rehabilitation of Myth: Vico's New Science
Cambridge University Press (1992)
| Abstract | In this important essay, Joseph Mali argues that Vico's New Science must be interpreted according to Vico's own clues and rules of interpretation, principally his claim that the 'master-key' of his New Science is the discovery of myth. Following this lead Mali shows how Vico came to forge his new scientific theories about the mythopoeic constitution of consciousness, society, and history by reappraising, or 'rehabilitating' the ancient and primitive mythical traditions which still persist in modern times. He further relates Vico's radical redefinition of these traditions as the 'true narrations' of all religious, social, and political practices in the 'civil world' to his unique historical depiction of Western civilisation as evolving in a-rational and cyclical motions. On this account, Mali elaborates the wider, distinctly 'revisionist', implications of Vico's New Science for the modern human sciences. He argues that inasmuch as the New Science exposed the linguistic and other cultural systems of the modern world as being essentially mythopoeic, it challenges not only the Christian and Enlightenment ideologies of progress in his time, but also the main cultural ideologies of our time. | |||||||||
| Keywords | Myth Philosophy Social sciences Poetry | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Buy the book | $52.64 used (16% off) $52.89 new (15% off) $58.90 direct from Amazon (5% off) Amazon page | |||||||||
| Call number | B3581.P73.M35 1992 | |||||||||
| ISBN(s) | 0521419522 0521893275 9780521893275 | |||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
|
| Through your library | Configure |
Stephen Donatelli (2002). Vico's Topical Conception of Civil Wisdom. New Vico Studies 20:25-36.
John D. Schaeffer (1994). The Rehabilitation of Myth. New Vico Studies 12:95-97.
William Roger Schultz (2002). Bloom's Theory of Poetry. New Vico Studies 20:45-68.
Giambattista Vico (1984). The New Science of Giambattista Vico. Cornell University Press.
Giambattista Vico (2002). The First New Science. Cambridge University Press.
Giambattista Vico, Thora Ilin Bayer & Donald Phillip Verene (eds.) (2009). Giambattista Vico: Keys to the New Science: Translations, Commentaries, and Essays. Cornell University Press.
Barbara Ann Naddeo (2011). Vico and Naples: The Urban Origins of Modern Social Theory. Cornell University Press.
A. M. Adam (1994). Book Reviews : Joseph Mali, The Rehabilitation of Myth: Vico's New Science. University Press, New York, Cambridge, 1992. Pp. 275, $59.95 (Cloth. [REVIEW] Philosophy of the Social Sciences 24 (3):393-397.
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads13 ( #88,037 of 549,697 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 549,697 )How can I increase my downloads? |

