Vico and Naples

Ann. Naddeo Barbara

Description

Vico and Naples is an intellectual portrait of the Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) that reveals the politics and motivations of one of Europe's first scientists of society. According to the commonplaces of the literature on the Neapolitan, Vico was a solitary figure who, at a remove from the political life of his larger community, steeped himself in the recondite debates of classical scholarship to produce his magnum opus, the New Science. Barbara Ann Naddeo shows, however, that at the outset of his career Vico was deeply engaged in the often-tumultuous life of his great city and that his experiences of civic crises shaped his inquiry into the origins and development of human society.With its attention to Vico's historical, rhetorical, and jurisprudential texts, this book recovers a Vico who was keenly attuned to the social changes transforming the political culture of his native city. He understood the crisis of the city's corporate social order and described the new social groupings that would shape its future. In Naddeo's pages, Vico comes alive as a prescient judge of his city and the political conundrum of Europe's burgeoning metropolises. He was dedicated to the acknowledgment and juridical remedy of Naples' vexing social divisions and ills. Naddeo also presents biographical vignettes illuminating Vico's role as a Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Naples and his bid for the prestigious Morning Chair of Civil Law, which foundered on the directives of the Habsburgs and the politics of his native city. Rich with period detail, this book is a compelling and vivid reconstruction of Vico's life and times and of the origins of his powerful notion of the social.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy
• Italy
• History of Europe
• My Last Duchess

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801460876
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

 VICO AND NAPLES

VICO AND NAPLES n T HE URBAN ORI GI NS OF MODE RN SOCI AL T HEORY

B a r b a r a A n n N a d d e o

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2011 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2011 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Naddeo, Barbara Ann. Vico and Naples : the urban origins of modern social theory / Barbara Ann Naddeo.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 978-0-8014-4916-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Vico, Giambattista, 1668–1744. 2. Social sciences— Philosophy—History. 3. Cities and towns— Philosophy—History. 4. Naples (Kingdom)— Historiography. 5. Rome—Historiography. I. Title.  B3583.N33 2011  195—dc22 2010035481

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Cloth printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Helidon and Sicile

  Co nt e nt s

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Vico and Naples 1. The Origins of Vico’s Social Theory: Vichian Reflections on the Neapolitan Revolt of 1701 and the Politics of the Metropolis 2. Vico’s Cosmopolitanism: Global Citizenship and Natural Law in Vico’s Pedagogical Thought 3. Vico’s Social Theory: The Conundrum of the Roman Metropolis and the Struggle of Humanity for Natural Rights 4. From Social Theory to Philosophy: Vico’s Disillusions with the Neapolitan Magistracy and the New Frontier of Philosophy Note on References and Translations 189 Abbreviations 191 Notes 195 Sources Cited 271 Index 291

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  A c k n o w l e d g m e nt s

The origins of this book have as much to do with my own interests as they do with serendipity. Indeed, this book began with an invitation by Peter Reill to present a paper on Vico at a conference sponsored by the UCLA Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies and by the Fondazione Cini of Venice, Italy, which generously hosted the event in its grand setting on the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore. At that conference, “Interpretazioni Vichiane” (22–23 November 2002), I had the opportunity to first meet a number of outstanding Vico scholars and to begin my own endeavors that have yielded this book. This project was then ide- ated and nurtured in conversation with other historians, both European and American, to whose great intellectual generosity I am profoundly indebted. In Italy, the argument of this book was first broached and passionately debated with a number of exemplary scholars, and it is now my great plea- sure to be able to thank Michèle Benaiteau, Brigitte Marin, Giovanni Muto, Anna Maria Rao, Manuela Sanna, and Piero Ventura for having listened and responded so constructively to my thoughts at the beginning of this project. On this side of the Atlantic, this book further benefited from the great inter- est and engagement of members of the faculty at Stanford University, where I was an Andrew W. Mellon fellow in the Humanities (2002–4). Among the many stimulating conversations I had at Stanford, I particularly would like to acknowledge those with Keith Baker, Paula Findlen, Jessica Riskin, and a visiting colleague, Sheryl Kroen, who helped me enormously with the conceptualization of this book and a number of other completed and ongoing projects. At the City College of New York, this project was then formalized in discussion with my former chair, Darren Staloff, for whose great encouragement I remain most grateful, and sustained by the indispens- able support of my colleagues in the History Department. The research for this book could not have been undertaken without the generous financial support of a number of institutions. The research funds and flexibility of the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in the Humanities at Stanford made it possible for me to make a first foray into the libraries and

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