From Idealism to the Science of Culture: A Comparative Study and Validation of Five Interpretations of Vico's Methodology of Philosophy of Culture

Articles in Press

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Author

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy and Religios Studies, Reserch Center for Islamic Culture and Thought, Qom, Iran.

10.30471/mssh.2026.11651.2709

Abstract

This study, focusing on the thought of Giambattista Vico, validates five major interpretations of the methodology articulated in his New Science, a work established as a philosophy of culture opposing the dominant Cartesian epistemology of its time. By advancing the principle of verum factum (“the true is the made”), Vico affirmed the autonomy of the human sciences and distinguished interpretive “understanding”—achieved through imagination (fantasia)—from causal, naturalistic “explanation.” Using a verisimilitude-based evaluative framework, the research examines the positions of Croce, Horkheimer, Pompa, Berlin, and Mali in relation to four foundational pillars of Vichian methodology: verum factum, poetic wisdom, the unity of philology and philosophy, and divine providence. The findings indicate that Idealistic (Croce) and Materialistic (Horkheimer) readings exhibit lower validity due to various forms of reductionism, while the Deductive interpretation (Pompa) insufficiently accounts for imaginative operations. In contrast, the Hermeneutic-Cultural paradigm advanced by Berlin and Mali, emphasizing reconstructive imagination and internal understanding, displays the highest degree of coherence with Vico’s methodological framework and broader conception of human cultural development.

Keywords

Methodology of Social Sciences and Humanities

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 09 May 2026

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics