The New Map of the World: The Poetic Philosophy of Giambattista Vico (Princeton Legacy Library, 77) - Hardcover

Mazzotta, Giuseppe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691630593 ISBN 13: 9780691630595

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2016

Synopsis

For today's readers, the great Italian philosopher of history Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) can be startlingly relevant to the social and educational divisiveness we confront at century's end: here Giuseppe Mazzotta, one of the leading Italianists in the United States, shows how much Vico, properly read, can bring to an understanding of contemporary social problems. To explore Vico's body of thought in all its monumental complexity, Mazzotta highlights the place of poetry, or "writerliness," in Vico's educational project, which links literature, history, religion, philosophy, and politics. The New Map of the World is the first book since Benedetto Croce's The Philosophy of G. B. Vico (1911) to interpret the immense range of Vico's creativity.

Beginning with Vico's autobiography, Mazzotta explains that Vico's heroic attempt to unite the arts and sciences was meant to offer a desperately needed political unity to modern society. In contrast to past thematic studies of Vico that focus on a single one of his ideas, The New Map of the World explores the vital interaction of the issues that fascinated him: his educational and political project, his sense of the necessity for a new way of conceiving authority, and his belief in the power of poetry. Mazzotta ends by examining Vico's awareness of the tragic limits of politics itself.

Originally published in 1999.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Written with disarming clarity and simplicity. It is a model of unaffected brio."--Angus Fletcher, City University of New York

"Too many Vichian studies have forced the Scienza nuovo into a philosophical straightjacket. It is time that scholars attended to the substance of Vico's philological, linguistic, and literary learning, since that is where most of its novelty is to be found. Mazzotta has performed this task with ingenuity, eloquence, and striking insights."--Donald Kelley, Rutgers University

About the Author:

Giuseppe Mazzotta is the Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of Italian Language and Literature at Yale University. He is the author, among other books, of Dante, Poet of the Desert: History and Allegory in the Divine Comedy, Dante's Vision and the Circle of Knowledge, and The World at Play: A Study of Boccaccio's Decameron (all published by Princeton University Press).

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0691630593
• ISBN 13: 9780691630595
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 286