The New Science by Giambattista Vico

Vico is an Italian philosopher and a historian influenced by classical and renaissance writers. He conceive of a heroic age in which men constructed myths, symbols and rituals that served as the basis for the slow growth of the human consciousness of history and reality.

Vico's basic idea concentrates on “the poetic wisdom”, which leads to abstract thought but not without an eventual loss of spirit and imaginative life. By poetic wisdom Vico means unbounded by reason and intellect. Wisdom which is poetical; not intellectual is called poetic wisdom. In other words, wisdom, which transcends the barriers of mind or intellect, is called poetic wisdom. Wisdom from the beyond is not affected by intellect, the product of civilization.

In defining poetry, he treats its origins in the primitive imagination. He values Homer and ancient poets as the creators of culture. The philosophers, who followed them, built up systems of abstract thought from the poets’ imaginative creations. Thus, Vico is one of the earliest theorists to base the importance of art on the principle that abstract thought emerges from iconic expression or mythical thinking. By iconic expression we mean expression in the form of icon. It is a form of concert expression. When abstract thought is expressed in the form of idea, iconic expression comes in to establishment. As a consequence, he reverses the usual rationalistic definitions of the poetic tropes as special kind of deviation from rational linguistic procedures.

Although he belongs to the Enlightenment movement, he seems to be dissatisfied with its doctrine. He uses the term poetic sensitivity, poetic wisdom, iconic expression, mythical thinking etc, against philosophical and abstract thinking. He laments for the loss of poetic wisdom. He wishes to bring the poetic wisdom back to the age of science. Due to civilization and philosophy, our pure, innate, inborn quality- the poetic wisdom is lost. He favors poetry advocating against philosophy. Philosophy was superior to poetry in western tendency but Vico denies it and says poetry precedes philosophy. He claims that “poetic wisdom” is the source of everything. Poetry is the first creation of human beings. He says that poetry is concrete not abstract. Poets “humanize” poetry, so it is concrete. To humanize poetry, poet uses metaphor, and human bodily parts are compared with concrete things of outer world. Poetry is based on sense perception but philosophy on reason. Therefore, sense perception is superior to reason, quite contrary to Plato. History for Vico, never dies. It is repetitive and moves in cyclic movement.

History is the "poetic wisdom” that has the three stages they are -
Age of Gods
Age of Heroes
Age of Men

Age of Gods: In the ancient time, when there was uncivilization and brutality, myth was created. The people were ignorant about nature. They were surprised with natural phenomena and were curious to it. So, they imagined about such mysterious things. And through the imagination, they created the story of gods and goddesses. This very imagination was the knowledge to them. They created those stories in poetic language using metaphor. People started humanizing nature by giving human attributes to natural happenings. The sky, hills, clouds etc. were considered as amazing entities. Sense of Wonder and amazement gave rise to poetic wisdom.

Age of Heroes: Poetry was written about superman, which replaced god. In place of metaphor, allegory was used. Myth was allegorized. Poetry became concentrated on rules and regulations.

Age of Man: Satire and irony becomes dominant elements. Poets using satire and irony hid truth. It is the age of new Barbarism. There is no truth, only falsehood. Here, it is the loss of ancient poetic wisdom because reason became superior to poetry. Therefore, concrete poetry turned in to abstract. Imagination and wonder have been lost.

Vico goes against Marxism. For him, historical cycle repeats again and it reaches to ancient time. Again, poets write in imagination. He opposes Marxism in the sense that Marxists believe that history moves in vertical line and Marx's past history never returns back; it is always progressive, but Vico's history is circular it can be repetitive and recurring. Here, he sounds like M. Foucault.