Wisdom and Politics in De ratione

Abstract

 The essay analyzes the relationship between wisdom and politics in Vico's early works. The first part concerns Orationes. The second examines De ratione (the seventh and final oratio, later transformed by Vico into an independent essay published in 1709). Finally, the third part refers to De antiquissima, a treatise published in 1710. The aim of the essay is to demonstrate how Vico's thought, despite the remarkable diversity of these texts, revolves around the idea of a fundamental (metaphysical and moral) primacy of wisdom over politics. This means that, in this first phase of his theoretical reflection, De ratione does not constitute an exception, even in the light of such methodological innovations as to induce the interpreters to recognize a breaking point with respect to the previous conceiving. Only in the major works (Universal Law and, in particular, the three editions of the New Science) will the relationship between wisdom and politics take a different and much more complicated orientation, so as to completely transform the sense of that ancient primacy.