On Vico Author(s): Isaiah Berlin Source: The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 140 (Jul., 1985), pp.

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ThePhilosophical Vol.35 No. 140 Quarterly ISSN 0031-8094 $2.00

DISCUSSIONS
ON VICO BY ISAIAH BERLIN

In his article"Vico's Theoryof Knowledge:A Critique",in The Philosophical ofJanuary Perez Zagorin(hereinafter referred 1984,pp. 15-30, Professor Quarterly to as 'Z.') advances oftheaccount various criticisms ofVico'sviewscontained in my book Vico andHerder intheorder tothem inwhich (London,1976). I proposetoreply thanthe orderof their occur,rather they importance. 1. p. 6. I nowhere to scientific is, in myview,superior saythathistorical knowledge Vico thought this.'So, too,laterin his article,2 Z. asserts thatI onlythat knowledge, takeVico's "speciesof selfknowledge" to be superior to natural This is knowledge. notso; I only tobe different from takethem each other. To know whatsomething is, is one thing;to knowwhatsomeoneis at, is another. Men's purposive behaviour can (in mycritic'swords)be "divined".Trees and stonesdo not,we sometimes acts or pursue goals to be "divined". beliefs, believe,entertain perform Types of I do notclaimthateither to theother. is superior differ; knowledge 2. p. 17. Z. desciibesVico'swritings as "chaotic, In general, incoherent". I unclear, oftheTrue Homer,or the Vico's accounts agreewithhim.But I do notacceptthat nature of barbarousor heroic epochs do not (as he asserts) followfromhis I am not clear about the precise logical forceof "follows"; but I epistemology: think thattheseaccounts are closely boundup with Vico's general certainly conceptionof howwe can acquireknowledge of thehumanpast. I agreethat verum ipsum of knowledge, is the basis of Vico's theory and that,in Z.'s words, "it factum underlies"the centralideas of the ScienzaNuova. Oddly enough,Vico does not in that, mention thisdoctrine his majorwork:it remains buriedin theDe explicitly in Vico's earlier and, to a lesserdegree,elsewhere Antiquissima writings. 3. p. 20. (a) Z., likeCroce,traces backanticipations ofwhathe callsVico's "maker's to Aquinasand theItalianRenaissance; butsurely itis older- at leastas knowledge" old as Augustine. It is repeated in thestrong version it given byVico in thewritings of thephysician and skeptic FranciscoSanchez (in thelate sixteenth century). we cometo a moreseriousdisagreement, whatZ. regards (b) Atthispoint namely, as an anticipation ofVico's notion of "maker's in Locke's Essay.In Z.'s knowledge" viewLocke considered to demonstrative be derived from men'sownfree knowledge - his arrangement invention of words or symbols, as in mathematics or "civil
2

Berlin, pp. 27-30 and 106-8. Zagorin, pp. 26-7.

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to thatadvancedby Hobbes; and Z. thinks similar it odd thatnobody philosophy", has so farnoticedthis.He also thinks thatLocke appliedthisprinciple to moral whichhe regardedas demonstrative (as indeed he did) forthisvery knowledge, reason.This does notappeartome tobe thecase. I amnotvery about knowledgeable and Locke, but I have looked at all the passages in the Essayto whichZ. refers, cannotfindanything to his view. (save one ambiguous phrase) support (i) The first passage is Essay,Bk III, chap. IX, sections15-17. Locke sayshereno morethanthat(in thecase of nominal we essences)wordscan onlymeanwhatever ifwe makeitplainhowwe are choosing chooseto makethem mean- and that to use it maywell turnout thatthereare fewer them,i.e. defineour termsproperly, variousviewsthanmight differences between One of Locke's appearat first sight. of"gold";thefact bestknown is ourdefinition that itis yellow, etc. ductile, examples willfollow from theinclusion oftheseproperties in ourdefinition ofthat ifthe metal; definitions ofgolddiffer, whichthey so willthat entail. This seemsunexceptionable, and no morethana warning thatwhatmayseem differences ofviewsaboutreality out to be merely verbaldifferences. So far, relevant to mayturn nothing particularly Vico (or Hobbes) seemsto me to follow. (ii) Next comes Bk IV, chap. IV, sections5-7 and 8-9. This statesthat"simple - something ideas" correspond to "archetypes" in nature, "bittere.g. "whiteness", ideas" are combinations ofsimple ideaswhich ness",etc.,butthat (savefor "complex that of"substance") can be madefreely arenotintended torefer byus, and sincethey outside are themselves Since the to,or represent themselves, anything "archetypes". ideas do not "represent" real things, cannotturnout to be false:like complex they suchcombinations are ourowncreation. If "things" in theoutside world definitions, to suchcomplex willturn outto be true("certain") ideas,they happen"to conform" of them.But this is obviously a contingent fact.Hence mathematics is certain since it is knowledge in onlyof our own "ideas", and holds of things knowledge, ifthey nature do only "agreewith[a man's]ownideas".How canwe tellwhether they so "agree",or in Locke's wordsthat "theideas haverealexistence in matter"? Locke does not,so faras I can see, tellus. Whether do or do nothave anygiven complexes "real existence" remains we cannotdemonstrate or be consequently hypothetical; certainof this. The doctrinethat mathematical are our own free propositions of relations and nottranscripts in the external creation, world, goes back to at least ofVico,as indeedI notedin mybook.3 NicholasCusanus,who is a real forerunner 7-9. Here we cometo Locke's curiousdoctrine sections (iii) Nextin orderare ibid., that moralknowledge ofmathematics, is as demonstrative as that because,according to Z., "themoraldomain is ofthemind'sownmaking and is constituted (myitalics) by the names,definitions and ideas attachedto our moralactions".For Locke, the wordsin therealmofmorality are indeed"made"byus as we please;butwhatabout "the ideas" whichtheysignify? These ideas do not,it is true,represent forhim in are of but the ideas" which themselves; objects nature; they "archetypes" "simple such "ideas of reflection" are said to be compounded, to Locke, are, according not"made" byus: simpleideas are given, notmade;that is why we cannot certainly moralideas as we please,only makeup and compound names.Locke makes thisquite
3

to p. 142. Berlin,footnote

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clear:he saysthat one can call "theidea oftaking from without their others, consent, whattheir honest has possessedthem butthis will of"bythenameofjustice, industry be a mistake, forthe"things whichagreewith[this idea willbe] thesamethings as if hence yourcallingit "justice"will departfrom common you called it "injustice"; sense and breed error". Locke's ideas of moralrulesare, in anycase, confused. In different partsof the Essayhe declaresthemto be (a) ordained byGod; (b) men'sreasonworking bythe whichestablishes from whichmoralrulescan be deduced; truths lightof nature, of utility. These beliefscan (c) ordainedby nature;(d) dictated by requirements save by assumingthatthe bases of morality, however scarcelyall be reconciled, are laid downforus by the Christian faith whichwas at the centre of his derived, and so are anything but our own freecreations: stillless are they verbal outlook, constructs. The relevant Locke cannot holdthat "thedomain of pointis that possibly ... is theproduct oflanguage".4 Locke is clearthatsimpleideas cannotbe morality either "created" and ("made")or destroyed bythemind.Nor can their "agreements" be "made" by us (Essay,Bk IV, chap. IV, section7). These are "disagreements" makenordestroy them".These "materials of all our given:"The mindcan neither and furnished to the mindonlyby thosetwowaysabove are suggested knowledge viz. sensation and reflection" of mentioned, (Bk II, chap. II, section2). The bricks whichmoralpropositions are builtare presumably and "con"ideas of reflection"; and "incongruity" ofideasputtogether tocreate or gruity" byus arenotinourpower undo.That,too,is given. "The preciserealEssenceoftheThingsmoral wordsstand and so the Congruity and Incongruity of the Things for,maybe perfectly known, be certainly in whichconsists Whatare themselves, discovered, perfect knowledge." these"Things"? Moralideaswhich are notmadeor destroyed bythemind:they may haveno archetypes outside butthey are notcreated as Z. themselves, byus. IfYolton, tellsus (I regret thatI have nothis book to hand) does notsee Locke's morality as "maker's he is surely We can,forLocke,manipulate wordsas we knowledge", right. to signify like:butthe "ideas" whichthey are intended havean independent mental of theirown: and theiragreements and disagreements, on whichour entire reality ofknowledge in all spheres, fabric to Locke,mustdepend, are not"made" according or "constituted" mind. Butfor Vico- intherealms ofmathematics, art, bythehuman and those of religion, and the like,men in some myth, representations symbolic measuredo indeed"make"them- they arefacta- man-made, as therealworldis made by God alone. The ambiguous above passagein theEssayto whichI referred occursin Bk IV, chap.IV, section ideas ofour 9, whereLocke does speakof "moral ownmaking and naming". This seemstotally inconsistent yes.Butmaking? Naming, witheverything else he saysaboutideas,hereand elsewhere; forifwe could really "make" ideas as we pleased, what could Locke mean by their"agreements and whichare notofour making? "Murderdeserves death",Locke tells disagreements" occuror not;buttherelationship murders of "death"to "murder", i.e. us, whether that ofbeingdeserved, or "congruity" is notcreated ofthese byus - the"agreement" is objective: use of wordscannotalterit. This ideas, whether simpleor complex, and alien to, Vico's visionof humanexperience. is absentfrom, So epistemology
4 Zagorin, p. 23, lines 1-2.

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much forVico and Locke, withwhose views,in contrast to those of Bacon and Hobbes, Vico feltno affinity. of history as 4. Why,Z. asks on p. 22, did not Hobbes or Locke, likeVico,think thishimself: because for or "civilphilosophy"? Z. answers beinglike mathematics deductions or - factsand events - is notdeduciblefrom themhistory "definitions, of names". Nor was it so for Vico. conclusionsderivedfromthe connections of "factum": butit givesus no information about Mathematics maybe theparadigm of inVico's conception involved claimsto do so: thecreativity History plainly reality. conclusions" to is not confined or cultural deductions, "definitions, growth change without technical a deliberately invented from derived anyfixed relationship language to the real world.The idea thatthereis some sense in whichmen can be said to Descartesor is absentfrom Hobbes and Locke,as itis from ownhistory createtheir For human to is with situation is less clear Vico, history regard Leibniz). Spinoza (the nor a of men's constructive neithera succession of eventsindependent ability, be for God whomadeit:butnotfor deductive (as itmust us); it system rule-governed is more like a process of continuous, unconscious, conscious,partly partly partly creation. or nature-, conditioned, Providence-, purposive, partly - it 5. Z.'s p. 23. Vico's "civilworld"is, of course,not constituted by definitions - butto saythisis ofan "indefinite offacts" does, indeed,as Z. says,consist variety of activities forhim,consists and forVico: creation, not to denythatit is a factum is onlyone, albeitan thatembody and promote institutions them;ofwhichlanguage - cultures, indeed- as Vicoviewsall that makesup socialpatterns element. essential, are not (as theyare byAristotle) of "making"; so many varieties doingand making relationships (including byhim;waysofbehaviour, legaland economic distinguished in awareness or as elements in ofsuchactivities either thewordswhichare involved ritual the entire and theactivities (verbal non-verbal), themselves), imaginamyths, - is, in Vico's sense, however tive visionofreality, embodied, conveyed expressed, ofthe in his account ofhowwe comebydiscovery roleoffantasia thecentral factum: is madebymen(orby Factum unlessthisis recognised. is all that pastis unintelligible ofsymbols conventional he maymeanbyit),and notmerely Mens,whatever systems as he is relevant Z. mentions in thisconnection), so far orwords. (whom Wittgenstein thatrule-governed hereat all, is so onlybecause he thought languageis interlinked withways of life: interlinked but not identical;it is not the whole of social or and act upon reality, humanpurposes, to understand individual life.Human efforts forVico or, so faras I are not themselves ambitions, motives, hopes, frustrations, withspecific however verbalrulesor definitions, else,identical know, deeply anyone in theirgeneration. theseare involved 6. p. 24. For thisreason,when(e.g. in ScienzaNuova,349) Vico saysthatno one thisis said is thanhe whomakesit,thesenseinwhich can be morecertain ofhistory to thatof Marx whenhe declaredthatman makeshis own history similar (even if as he does not makethe sun or the "notout of whole cloth")- makeshis history ofmathemaand theactivity thiskindof"making" between moon.The onlyanalogy Vico does notmean theuse ofimaginative ticsis that bothinvolve Certainly activity. that is literally madebythemindofthehistorian: aboutthis)that history (Z. wonders evenforCroce. wouldbe too much,I think,

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7. p. 25. Z. maywellaskwhatVico meanswhenhe speaksofhistory as something whicha mancan understand the of own mens. his He rightly modificazioni byviewing Menshas been variously thinks thisto be unclear. as universal mind,a interpreted "collective unconscious";as whatis commonto the Hegelian Geist;as a Jungian ofall men (sensus outlooks as themindsofmen,as I shouldliketo think, communis); in Vico,which of Christian save thatthereis undeniably an element Neoplatonism - a Mensinwhich finite seek divine tendstowards theidea ofa universal spirits spirit - the creative to have theirbeing.Whatever Vico meansby mens of the principle humanworld- it is clear thatwithout mentalactivity on the historian's part,in ofhisfantasia, ofsuchfactaas thosewhichfill theinterpretation the"vast particular of the first men" (to the recovery of whichVico saysthathe devoted imaginations some twenty intoanything labour)couldnothavebeen converted yearsof agonising whichhe thinks evenapproaching theverum he has managed to establish. This is so in hisview,capableof becausewhathas been madebyminds(or "Mind") is always, theirown modificazioni. Is the method beinggraspedby othermindsby inspecting that ofanalytical or ofimagining? Is itbased on his reliance on theparallel reasoning on the notion that humanity betweenphylogenesis and ontogenesis, could be conceived as a vastsingleindividual (as Pascal once described it)?Or is it based on the parallel betweenwhat a grownman can remember of his own childhood, and his graspofthesuccession oftheepochsofhumancultures? adolescence, youth, How does Vico thinkthatwe penetrate or reconstruct or mentalities, primitive makesthisclear, treatise indeed,anypartofthecultural past?He never yethis entire in such a capacity on ourpart- to establish verum because itis dependson his faith - generated of our ancestors. Whatexactly is factum bythemindsand imaginations to by such wordsas entrare or discendere, whichhe uses to the process referred ofwhatwenton in themindsof thebestioni describeour pathto theunderstanding fromwhom we are all descended?And indeed, how do e.g. Professor orribili or Professor Geertzfind out thewaysin whichTrobriand or Malinowski Islanders, or Balinese,perceive Arabsin NorthAfrica, and interpret theworldto themselves? Whatwas Burckhardt tobe doing? Or thescholars ofthe himself doingor supposing Institute? These are genuineproblems to whichI triedto explain Vico's Warburg an interpretation whichZ. findsso inadequate.What I wish to maintain, answer, is that his if however, emphasison Vico's alleged searchforcausal explanations, "cause" is what eitherGalileo and Descartes,or Hume, or theirfollowers, have meantbyit,is incorrect. This brings me to thecentral between Professor and myself disagreement Zagorin - aboutVico's conception ofhistorical and consequently ofhis method of causality, historical Vico of of historical as does, course, speak enquiry. knowledge knowledge Z. clearly thinks that Vico meant whatclassicalnatural science percaussas. bycaussae meantbycausality, of it,or at as Descartesor Hume or Mill or Einstein conceived any rate something verysimilarto this.I disagree.The mostreliablemethodof what meansto a thinker his is to examine his actualuse of discovering terminology Vico enunciates ofenquiry theternis. as hiscentral that "theories must start principle fromthe pointwhere the matter starts whereof theytreat"(SN 314, 394). His of thisrule- as his examplesshow- is clearly notthatof a searchfor application causes in thecommon scientific senseoftheword.The (or formostofus, everyday)

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to describewaysin whichhumanbeings, bulk of the SN consistsof an attempt to in remoteages or lands, tend to conceive,use theirimaginations, particularly inwhich thenatural and socialworlds find understand and interpret themselves, they and to expresstheirvisionsof theseworldsin modes of behaviour, social, legal, in monuments, ofspeech them forms and thelike,and embody institutions, religious Whatcost him whichshape theirconceptsand beliefs. and writing, fables, myths, ofa method ofpainful labour whathe called"sometwenty was theelaboration years" he had succeededin answering such novelquestionsas what he thought whereby who created thewords, invented the their worlds musthavelookedliketo creatures thatare so unfamiliar to himand his contemwrotethepoetry creatures, mythical ofreality ofmenwhose musthavebeen thevision What,he wantsto know, poraries. a winged with ofsuchcreatures mindswerefilled notions as, forexample, horse,or, ofNeptune, whois at once a marine and all theseas oftheearth, still, deity stranger of giants or Cybele,who is boththe earthand a woman, mother (SN 402, 549), or ofthegods and at thesametimethethundering Jove,father sky(SN 379)? These credibile he callsl'impossibile to us - incoherent entities (SN 383) - yethe is clearthat in indeed which these"savagemonsters" theseare theconcepts, images, categories wereat,we mustseek to and wrote.If we are to graspwhatour ancestors thought ofthesefirst itis almost our thevastimaginations "enter men",eventhough "beyond or "descending to"these power"to do this(SN 33, 378-9). Whathas this"entering" If in thecourseoftracing whatZ. calls historical causality? savagemindsto do with of the things "thehistory signified by thewords"(SN 354) we conjecture (though thathis "new science"could attain Vico plainly to muchgreater thought certainty) lexthrough that theevolution ilex, of,forinstance, (SN 29) are aquilex, legumen, legere of from of the men thedirect "forests, (notevidences) expressions linguistic passage nextcities, academies"(SN 239) - thissearchfor thenhuts,thence finally villages, fanciful as etymology, however is nota formulation percaussas, byVico ofthe origins kindofcausalhypotheses advancedin thephysics ofhistime;all thisis pretty remote from or or Newton or Descartes Galileo were were anything doing supposedthey tellsus (SN 374) that we mustproceednotbylooking doing.Indeed,Vico explicitly forevidence outsideour minds, butdo "as themetaphysicians do" who look"in the to of theirown minds- of him who meditates". This invitation modifications of of self the the the active modificazioni phenomenological inspection tracing thinker's ownmindas a clue to themodificazioni ofthephasesofcollective (maker's) human experience(or perhaps of some universal Mind, howeverthis is to be of the causal is not,whatever else it maybe, a plea forthe application understood) ofVico's times in or astronomers, or our own.If causality laws of chemists whether in Z.'s opinion, Vicois anxious "nottowithdraw from" as theCartesian senseis what, thehuman attack on Descartes his great partofhisnewwayofdiscovering past,then inVico'sviewappliesonly extra for which tothings as the nos, up hismethod, holding If of all becomes causal which true the principles paradigm knowledge, unintelligible. withthosewhichapplyto things in physical are identical applyto humanhistory ofwhich Vico thegreat newdiscovery space,thenwhatdoes theclaimto originality, to?Z. accuses me ofimputing toVico. I do. I cannot was so proud,amount dualism and allies,fromCuoco and Micheletto see what else he - and all his followers

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Croce,Joyceand his contemporary (save Nicola Badaloni)interpreters Dilthey, not be surprised if I say thathis to be. Z. will therefore took his ideemaitresse of inthestructure ofcausalexplanation "Vicoinsisted on thecentrality that statement theentire 'cause' in itsusual sense,seemsto me to runagainst taking knowledge",5 thrust and purposeand methodof the ScienzaNuova,and, of course,of the De he rebelledagainst all Vico's theoretical after and ofvirtually Antiquissima, writings with the morein common seemsto me tohaverather Descartes.Vico's use ofcaussae ofthelatemiddle and theAristotelian tradition ofcause byAristotle ages conception who overthrew it in the seventeenth thanwiththatof the new thinkers century. in time, but areproductive, notmereantecedents causes"which Aristotle's "efficient bound by logicalties to theirconsequences,are moreakinto Vico's stagesof the of the humanmind- imagination, fantasia, question-answering, mythworkings - thananynotions of faculties conception-generating creating, language-moulding, oftheterm havedetermined themeaning ofsciencewhich cause in thephilosophies idea of a "formal" cause. There is also eversince. So, too, perhaps,is Aristotle's to be takeninto Platonic- in fact,Neo-Platonic- inspiration Vico's avowedly sincethey are generative are are active;they account.Vico's caussae sources, which, of of for the meant to account habits, outlooks, conceptions, ways growth progressive - he is ofthedevelopment ofstagesofsocialconsciousness ofhumansocieties, living a nos- constitute, notsurprisingly, notwriting aboutnatural objectswhichare extra him in to influence the first the vitalistic instance, due, upon early probably approach, of Lucretius. of thesecaussae The tracing is not of the Epicureanideas of growth of spiritual to thelatertheories dissimilar of,forinstance, development Lessingand amateurish efforts itis worth thatevenin hisvery Herder.In thisconnection, noting to a of construct uncritical Nicolini's (in opposition, admiration) theory physics (pace offorce or he speaksofcausation centres ofcourse,tothat ofDescartes), bydynamic - reminiscent further evidenceof the general of Leibniz - whichprovides energy Vico's deep It mayalso be that, of his deeplyanti-mechanistic trend given thought. - his absorbed in thehistory ofRomanlaw and interest in legalthought involvement - there is an elementof the legal sense of caussae,the its social implications of a chain of motives, actions,and theirimpacton human impulses, unravelling ofarguments in courts oflaw,whichseekto theheart whichconstitute relationships or social thedevelopof a account individual circumstances, purposes, give plausible mentof a givensituation to thepointat whichtherelevant legalissuesarises.That or abouthow thisor thathumancustomor formula, resembles Vico's hypotheses collisionbetweensocial classes, or styleof poetic or religiousexpression arose. of the historical past,usually per caussasis forVico the reconstruction Knowledge as itis practised butsometimes scholars, remote, recent, anthropologists, lawyers, by art- for ofjurisprudence, ofreligion, historians manners, detectives, politics, society, It is notin the leastlikethe an infallible whichhe thinks he has provided method. or thewayin that metalsexpand whenheated, technique bywhichone can establish of theplanetsare regulated. whichmovements seems to me to thatVico's caussae are Cartesianor Newtonian The assumption on whichsuccessful comcause Z. to rejectmyview thatmutualunderstanding,
5 Zagorin, p. 30.

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ofknowledge Yet itis so, because to munication Vico a form is for rests, percaussas.6 All humanactivities are forms of mean something is forVico a kindof making. notonlytheexplicit ofothers, but forhim.Whenwe understand statements making in them(ifonlyhalf and shapethemand are expressed thatinform also thefeelings - fears, and so on - these hopes,thesense ofawe,lustfordomination, consciously) caussas into of ofknowledge are forVico forms per insight thesprings imaginative human conduct,the "causal" acts constituted by speech, or acts of worshipor whichwe can graspin so faras we are actors,"causers", or gestures, propitiation, of Vico's theory of That is whywhatZ. calls my"doubtful elaboration ourselves. what Z. seems to calls our nevertheless me historical indeed, correct; knowledge" ofverum not ofeach other's minds" is a clearinstance convertuntur, etfactum "divining open to Z.'s objections. in my ofVico's 8. There follows viewerroneous, Z.'s pp. 26-7. It is this, conception thatleads Z. to saythatmyaccountofVico's empathy notion of causal activity does that he attributes notfit tohim.Indeeditdoes not.I can thekindofcausalknowledge one looksin theScienzaNuova(orVico's other wherever writings) onlyrepeatthat caussas that he meant finds SN one 374 recognition per byknowledge say, 338, 347, of ideas and and development in making; of the kindof causingthatis involved The accountof the growth, the origin, the outlooksis forVico alwaysa making. - is forhim a custom, nascimento ofa people,an institution, a usage,verbalor other of explanation. For Descartesor Galileo, a tracing, the veryparadigm per caussas, of events or facts connections causal laws are rationally timeless, grasped, necessary in nature, butsimilar necessities. notwholly identical with, to,mathematical perhaps, of unvarying For Hume or Mill or Russell theyare defactoregularities: systems of functional and all the othercategories successions, correlations, conjunctions, Z. the Would and be classicalphysics, testable senses by ultimately by experiment. thatthe storiadell' umaneideein SN 347 depends on the preparedto maintain - either laws of of the timeless the quasi-mathematical perception generalisations ofHume or theother ofthescientificallyor thedefacto uniformities concepts physics, mindeddeterminists in l'histoire of our own "glorious age"? Vico is not interested or whatforhistorians are causallyconnectedsuccessionsof events, evenementielle, of of influential norin theBraudelian the successesof failures individuals; analysis factors. He does,in ofgeographical, and other theworking demographic, impersonal to earn whichwerenotdestined othercontexts, theories, develophis ownphysical but these,fortunately, to knowledge: playno partin the respectas contributions of civilisations, he sethimself to tracethesuccession ScienzaNuova.In thistreatise in terms of themeansused (i.e. made,in his sense ofmaking) conceived byhuman - linguistic and self-expression forself-awareness communities forms, myths, images, in thetotal whichseemedto himtobe elements and thelike, rites outlooks, religious that Z. sayscorrectly Vico did notwantto societies. of successive Weltanschauungen, ifI am But sinceVico's caussae, ofitscharacter as causal knowledge. deprive history or of to conscious made are about, exist, unconscious, right, processes beingbrought his methodturnsout to be akinto whatsince Hegel and Husserlhas been called of highly in particular, examination and description specific "phenomenological":
6

Berlin, p. 27, para. 2.

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in thecourseofgenerations, and concepts and categories visions evolved, byhuman - in of forms active as self-expression groups thinking, feeling, beings self-images, tried toreconstruct. orart, ofculture, whathistorians ideas,havealways fact, religion, in fourtypesof knowledge 9. On p. 27, fn. 3, I am chargedwithdistinguishing of approaches are based on thetypes Vico. The chargeis justified. My distinctions and in theScienza in theDiritto Universale thatVico in factuses in DeAntiquissima, thathe himself of the distinctions Nuova.They are not meantas a summary drew, whichcannotget in verum, and that whichculminates between namely investigation beyondcertum. and thehistorical IdealeEterna 10. p. 28. There remains thestatus ofStoria cycles. nor is it the resultof on anysortof causal hypothesis, This forVico restsneither New Science. of the entire but it is the foundation reconstruction, psycho-historical and Machiavelli after Vico's idea of cycles,commonplace Plato, Polybius, enough a Platonicpattern, the eternalcentrallaw governing others,is forhim evidently of data humanaffairs, revealedby,but not an (ultimately empirical) generalisation as irrefutable as of history. It is forhim an a priori derivedfrom, the study truth, himself of of the of God of the the existence whom, soul, world, (from certainty indeed,the supremelaw of history emanates).The logicalstatusof thisinfallible ofthe to ourknowledge itmaybe, itis notrelated is obscureto me; whatever insight Nor does itseemtobe part itis governed. or thecausallawsbywhich worldofnature is said in the Scienza of men's "maker'sknowledge" (of whichscarcely anything Nuova),since here God alone is the maker. notunaware ofVico's I am,ofcourse, I shouldliketo makeitclearthat 11. Finally, inparticular ofthe - notmerely ofpresentation, butofsubstance, many shortcomings A greatdeal in theNewScience and in Vico's thesisof "maker's central knowledge". oftheNew and principles or ill-argued: thefoundations is implausible other writings to be continuously suigeneris is too greatly remain Science opaque. The terminology for Vico's original at anyrateto me. Greatas myadmiration geniusis, I intelligible, Nicolini and eventhemorecritical am nota Vichian, as Croce,Collingwood, Pompa whatthe StoriaIdeale understand and Verenemaybe so described.I do not fully could be; norwhatexactly is meantbyMens.I do notknowhowhe believed Eterna of the withthe freedom thathe had reconciled the mysterious waysof Providence oftheStoicsand thebelief withthedeterminism individual will,whichhe contrasts howilluminating and Nor do I believe(no matter in randomness oftheEpicureans. it totheextent that verum is attainable, Vico's insights often evenconvincing are) that - and even - hypothetical-deductive or experimental methods is, save by rational art indeed.I cannotexplain he ignored in humanaffairs, then, why very imperfectly a form ofhumanselfexpression as as a case ofcreativefantasia, (as opposedto myth) of the primitive bestioni. I see little basic as ritualor languageor the cravings in thetheory of eternal paceNietzsche, cycles.Aboveall,Vico's central plausibility, In whatsense,one mayask,can menbe said to thesisis open to radicalobjection. of environment, of ? Who can ignorethe obviouseffects make theirown history Whatofthe and behaviour? mental factors on humancharacter biological, physical, a factor which oftheir on humanlivesoftheunintended effect actions, consequences

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ISAIAHBERLIN

in his doctrine of Providence, whichuses some Vico himself so strongly emphasises ofmen'smostbarbarous activities to produceunforeseen which work consequences All this,and more,is so. Vico exaggerates. for theirbenefit? He was givento Butwith ofAristotle and Locke,virtually ludicrous fancies. thepossibleexception all - Plato,the Stoics,the Epicureans, the greatoriginal thinkers Descartes,Spinoza, else theywould neverhave Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Russel - exaggerated greatly; crackedthe "cake of custom",the receivedideas of theirtime.So, too,Vico. By attention to the role of how societiessaw (and felt)their and by condition, turning of could to he to me how later men come understand seems this, examples providing of the entireprovinceof attainable to have been the principalanticipator selfso richly historians, Kunstforscher, critics, developedby cultural literary knowledge, - poets and novelists - not to social anthropologists writers as well as imaginative of all As for Vico's notion of his central the mention kinds. topic variety ideologues - I cannot, of humancultures thanquotetheCzech writer Milan perhapsdo better ofa peopleand ofa civilisation "The identity Kundera'swordsin a recent article: is in whathas been created and concentrated reflected bythemind- inwhatis known at theheartofVico's highly unscientific New as 'culture"'.7 Perhapsthisis themente Science. ofcultural accounted as thefather Vico's realservice Voltaire is commonly history. is to have understood whata culture of its is, as Voltaire, despitehis proclamation of did not. Voltaire's Peter One as achievements, importance, Gay has greatest he probably did pointedout,lies in the sphereofpractice. By his mocking laughter to undermine theobscurantism, irrational morethananyone fanaticism, dogmatism and barbarous ofhis time.But itis his obscurecontemporary, cruelties Giambattista whatit is thatmen liveby. better Vico,who understood All Souls College, Oxford

BERLIN ON VICO
BY PEREZ ZAGORIN

a very to myarticle on Vico presents Professor Sir Isaiah Berlin'sreply interesting that are central not viewsand addresses ofsomeofhisprevious elaboration questions ofhistory and butalso to thephilosophy ofVico's thought onlyto theinterpretation of topics,I cannot toucha largenumber the social sciences.Because his remarks with to me his most to what seem but shall deal to them discuss all, try hope I shall follow the same orderin whichhe has important points.For convenience, his objections. presented
7

New York Review 26 April1984, p. 33, col. 2. ofBooks,

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