Grundzüge einer Neuen Wissenschaft über die gemeinschaftliche Natur der Völker. Aus dem Italienischen von Dr. Wilhelm Ernst Weber.

£500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The first German translation of La Scienza Nuova , the principal work by the Italian historian and philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), whose works were rediscovered in Germany by Herder and subsequently recognised as the beginning of the philosophy of history. The present German translation was undertaken by Dr. Wilhelm Ernst Weber (1790-1850) and was based on the third Italian edition revised by Vico and published in 1744 (the year of his death). The text is preceded by the translator’s preface (dated 21 July 1821), a chronological list of Vico’s works prepared by F. A. Ebert, and his autobiography (pp. [31]-118) with additions by the translator. The Scienza Nuova was Vico’s life’s work; he continued to edit and re-edit it up until his death in 1744. Vico presented a groundbreaking treatise on the science of reasoning, in which he articulated a method for identifying ‘universal forms of intelligibility common to all experience’ (Costelloe) in the form of a history of civil society. Vico’s system was a major departure from the then dominant Cartesian thought and established a theory of the development of civil society through key events: the progress of war and peace, law, social order, commerce and government. He asserted the existence of a shared human nature and a universal pattern according to which all nations run. This historical development is cyclical, Vico asserted, charting the progress of civil society from its earliest beginnings to its contemporary manifes

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