Vico and the maker’s knowledge principle

Abstract

knowledge principle has been accorded an enthusiastic reception in times. In On method and On the ancient wisdom , Giambattista Vico is unable, using the principle of maker's knowledge, to set up a scale of degrees of certainty, the ordering of which is in direct proportion to the degree of human construction of the object or field of knowledge. Vico moves in exactly the opposite direction, compounding scepticism so that one is forced to seek a foundational principle. The maker's knowledge principle offers Vico two advantages over Rene Descartes' principle of clear and distinct ideas. In the first place Vico's principle can be used to provide the basis for an account of physics which is considerably less vague than that of Descartes and no less plausible. Secondly, the maker's knowledge principle enables Vico to put the humanities back on the map.

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