The Decay of the Heroic State. The Conflict in Giambattista Vico’s New Science

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to analyze the figure of conflict in Giambattista Vico’s Scienza Nuova, highlighting its epistemological function and its historical-political cogency. This conflict presents itself both as an epistemological means through which reason understands the process of community establishment, and as the effective force for the development of nations. In fact, the changing of times outlined by Vico takes the form of an asymmetrical conflict which proves to be socially significant to the extent that it allows the recomposition of the social body within an order marked by the recognition, albeit precarious, of equality.