Synthesis philosophica, Vol. 30 No. 2, 2015.
Review article
Vico’s New Science as a Political Theology
Goran Sunajko
orcid.org/0000-0003-1438-9830
; Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography, Frankopanska 26, HR–10000 Zagreb
Abstract
The paper considers that Vico’s philosophy developed in the New Science is a position of what would later be labelled as a political theology. Therefore, paper starts from the definition of the concept of political theology and demonstrates the principles that will put Vico into that specific tradition of philosophical thought. In this meaning Vico’s philosophy is based on the metaphysical tradition and it is clear that it can be characterized as the political theology. Vico’s analysis is based on the classical typology of political community (rule) set by Plato and Aristotle, but it includes the philosophy of history aiming to show, contrary to usual considerations, that the political forms of government moved from the metaphysical principle of the one (monarchy), the fewness (aristocracy), the all (democracy) and finally ended in a metaphysical postulate of the one that is best expressed again in the monarchy. For this method Vico uses the classical pattern of political theology with the principle of divine providence in forming the political community, because it is a central concept of the political theology. That is why Vico shows that the first communities were based on religious postulates, and afterword on the philosophical. The author concludes that Vico’s New Science can be defined as an important piece on political philosophy based on political theology, which, in today’s conditions of material globalization, once more becomes an important position in overcoming the crisis of modern materialism of the world.
Keywords
Giambattista Vico; political philosophy; political theology; state; providence; metaphysics; sovereignty
Hrčak ID:
164516
URI
Publication date:
27.1.2016.
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