Abstract

Since Descartes and Locke, theory of knowledge and the concept of rationality itself have been closely allied with the sciences, common sense, and empirical understanding. I argue: that theory of knowledge must be extended to theory of myth, to a theory of the origin of consciousness understood in cultural terms, rather than purely logical or metaphysical terms; and that this understanding of origin involves an understanding of the fundamental relationship between rationality and two forms of mind which have traditionally be defined out of the sphere of knowledge—rhetoric and imagination. The argument that I make is based in part on an interpretation of Vico's New Science.