Vico, Gibbon, and Condorcet

Giambattista Vico

Giambattista Vico, the Italian social theorist and philosopher, was born on 23rd June 1668, in Naples. He was significantly influenced by the work of Tacitus, Machiavelli, and Plato in his view of human progress. Vico’s perspective was to understand the human world and how it influences success, love, hate, and will. Through his “pseudo-myth,” he wanted to know whether people living in the past had the same thoughts, outlooks, and mental power to the ones in the 17th century (The History Guide). Vico argued that the only way to understand humans is through history. He asserted that the historical investigation is critical to comprehending traditions, myths, fables, and language. Moreover, he claimed that with a particular religion, one could recognize the economic or political organization, a set of rules, and the assortment of manners. Vico’s perspective on people’s history contributed to the transformation and enrichment of human nature.

Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon, the English philosopher, was born on 27th April 1737, in Putney, Surrey. His contributions to human progress was explaining the early Christianity and how it influenced the collapse of the Roman Empire. Gibbon concluded that the end of the Roman Empire marked the rise of religion and barbarism (The History Guide). He argued that due to passion and prejudice, people had lost the meaning of faith. Also, he believed that God scrutinizes men before providing for them. Based on the philosophical analysis and historical fact, Gibbon introduced the secondary causes of the growth of churches. For example, he stated that Christianity was inherited from the Jews and that immortality began after the Babylonians and Egyptians bondage.

Marquis de Condorcet

Marquis de Condorcet was born in 1743 in Ribermont, Picardy. De Condorcet primary objective was to combine political science and moral to come up with new social science. He argued that the truth of experience is probable and that in the sciences of human, it is difficult to observe facts. De Condorcet believed that there exist mathematical explanations of all statements of experience (The History Guide). Also, he affirmed that every person instinctively and automatically balances the possibility of one occurrence with that of another one. As a result, De Condorcet significantly contributed to the formation of a link between moral progress and scientific advance.

Work Cited

The History Guide. ”Lecture 10: The Vision of Human Progress: Vico, Gibbon, and Condorcet.” Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History, n.d., http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture10a.html. Accessed 29 Sep. 2018.