Vico's New Science of Ancient Signs: A Study

Giambattista Vico considered his greatest philosophical achievement to be his discovery that early humans spoke in 'poetic characters'. Vico'sNew Scienceis thus also a philosophy of signs orsemata.Jurgen Trabantreads the profound insights into human semiosis contained in Vico's 'sematology' as both a spirited rejection of Cartesian philosophy and an early critique of enlightened logocentricism. Sean Ward's translation makes this work available to an English-reading audience for the first time

Jurgen Trabant is Professor of French and Italian Linguistics at the Free University, Berlin.

Foreword

vii

Donald Phillip Verene

Translator's preface

xiii

References, editions, abbreviations, acknowledgments

xv

Introduction

1

(3)

Mr. Vico, Renato, and philology

4

(20)

Vico's discovery: poetic characters

24

(10)

Gestures and objects (semata), words

34

(27)

The common mental dictionary

61

(20)

To speak by writing (Derrida-Rousseau)

81

(12)

To speak by singing (Herder)

93

(13)

Memoria-fantasia-ingegno

106

(17)

Vico and Humboldt on imagination and language

123

(18)

Notes

141

(6)

References

147

(6)

Index

153

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Vico's New Science of Ancient Signs: A Study of Sematology

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials