Vico and moral perception

by David W. Black

Vico and Moral Perception maintains that Vico's New Science offers an idiosyncratic theory of ethics that rejects the modernist notion of "principle" but which at the same time promotes an "historical absolutism" that post-modern thought denies. Vico's account of civic metaphor not only responds effectively to questions of moral agency but provides a unique cultural and rhetorical framework for studying the contexts of attention, the entry points of conscience, that anchor moral perception. In this respect, Vico not only provides a metaphysic of culture but offers singular instruction in the art of wise living.