On Humanistic Education

Author: (Italian) Vico
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: We live in a world of science and technology, where the pursuit of certainty and method has replaced the search for truth. Clear ideas and unambiguous statements are the ideals of modern thinkers and modern education. The ancient and humanistic ideals are rooted in the power of metaphor and memory, the rhetorical concept of speech, and its connection to self-awareness. Unless we bring them back, no amount of reading on essential theory, textual meaning theory, structural theory, postmodern theory, or hermeneutic analysis can successfully provide a foundation for the humanities and liberal arts. For readers, the danger of engaging with these six lectures lies in the risk of missing the implications of the ideas they generate through superficial reading. These lectures must be read alongside the footnotes, which provide references and often include passages from relevant Greek, Latin, and humanistic texts that Vico directly or indirectly quotes or uses as premises. They are selected by the translator from the footnotes and annotations of Visconti.