The Primacy of Language in Vico

Introduction

“…Michael Mooney, acknowledging Sorrentino's treatment of Vico's continuity as teacher of rhetoric and as scientist, calls attention to the fact that the Institutiones has not been explored in much of the recent research although he does suggest that the logic of jurisprudence found in it is consistent with that set forth in the New Science. 36 Donald Phillip Verene, though making limited use of the Institutiones Oratoriae, has fully developed Vico's idea of the universale fantastico, which he suggests arose early in his writing, perhaps as early as in the inaugural orations, and its role in the evolution of human society (mondo civile).31…”