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The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico is significant both as a source of insight into the influences on the eighteenth-century philosopher's intellectual development and as one of the earliest and most sophisticated examples of philosophical autobiography. Referring to himself in the third person, Vico records the course of his life and the influence that various thinkers had on the development of concepts central to his mature work. Beyond its relevance to the development of the New Science, the Autobiography is also of interest for the light it sheds on Italian culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Still regarded by many as the best English-language translation of this classic work, the Cornell edition was widely lauded when first published in 1944.
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Reviews
"Giambattista Vico, the greatest philosopher of the eighteenth century, is generally considered the founder of the modern philosophy of history.... This autobiography contains not only an account of the basic facts of Vico's personal and professional life, but also a good deal of interesting information concerning his intellectual background and the genesis of his thought. It is hence a good intro
Philosophical Review
"The Autobiography... as a general survey of Vico's ideas and of the divergences between his theory of society and those of his contemporaries. Especially interesting are Vico's comments on mathematical reasoning and on the difference between the mathematical and historical sciences.... The translators are to be congratulated upon an excellent performance of a task that was eminently worth doing."
Journal of Philosophy