THE PHILOSOPHY
OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO.
BY
BENEDETTO CROCE
TRANSLATED BY R. G. COLLINGWOOD
FELLOW AND LECTURER OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1913
TO
WILHELM WINDELBAND
PREFACE
My reasons for believing that a new exposition of Vico's philosophy isrequired may easily be inferred from the observations on the effects ofhis work and the biographical notes which form respectively the secondand fourth appendices to this volume.
Here I merely wish to state that my exposition is not meant for asummary of Vico's writings work by work and part by part. It ratherpresupposes an acquaintance with these writings, and, where that islacking, is intended to induce the reader to procure them in order tofollow better and to check the interpretation and estimate of them hereoffered.
On this supposition, though I have made free use of my author's actualwords, especially in the chapters dealing with history, I have notthought it desirable to mark them as quotations except where it wasimportant to emphasise the precise phrase of the original. I have ingeneral combined such passages from fragments scattered over a widefield, sometimes abbreviating, sometimes amplifying, and always freelyadding words and phrases of my own by way of commentary: and thecontinual use of quotation marks would merely have shown up in a mannermore wearisome than valuable the reverse side of my embroidery, whichany reader who so desires can study by the help of the references givenat the end of the book.
In my anxiety to show in every detail of my work, so[Pg viii] far as I could,the veneration due to the great name of Vico, I have endeavoured tobe brief with the brevity at which he himself aimed as the hall-markof sterling scientific thought. With this in view I have refrainedeven from controversy with his various interpreters, and have eithercontented myself with mere remarks, or more often left my detailsto be justified by the coherence of my view as a whole. Some of theinterpretations supported by me I believe to be the mature fruit ofthe investigations and controversies which form the greater partof the literature on Vico: all the rest, for which I am personallyresponsible, and the general idea of my book, I will defend againstalternative and contradictory views when occasion arises, should itever do so, in the detailed and direct manner which I have not thoughtit necessary to adopt in the course of my exposition. I hope, in fact,that the present work will rekindle rather than quench the discussionof Vico's philosophy: since in him we have, as Goethe calls him, theAltvater whom a nation is happy to possess, and to him we must harkback for a time in order to imbue our modern philosophy with an Italianfeeling, however cosmopolitan it may be in thought.
The dedication of my book, besides being a token of respect to one ofthe greatest modern teachers of the history of philosophy, is intendedto express the expectation and hope that the gap in this history towhich I have called attention more than once, especially on page 277 ofthe present volume, may soon be filled.
B. C.
RAIANO (AQUILA),
September 1910.
[Pg ix]...