Bøger af Cecilia Miller

The theories of language and society of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) are examined in this textual analysis of the full range of his theoretical writings, with special emphasis on his little-known early works. Vico's fundamental importance in the history of European ideas lies in his strong anti-Cartesian, anti-French and anti-Enlightenment views. In an age in which intellectuals adopted a rational approach, Vico stressed the nonrational element in man - in particular, imagination - as well as social and civil relationships, none of them reducible to the scientific theories so popular in his time.

This book maintains that it was not passive reception but active participation of readers-including those who listened to fiction read out loud-that fostered the Enlightenment. The decision to engage in intellectual debates, grounded in ideas often first found in fiction, allowed everyday people to participate in the questioning, and eventually the decision-making, of their own states.

The theories of language and society of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) are examined in this textual analysis of the full range of his theoretical writings, with special emphasis on his little-known early works.