Abstract

Vico invoked a non-theological doctrine of Providence to lend intelligible structure to the order of human history. This doctrine, or something very close to it, is needed to understand what it means for human beings to have a culture, and especially to understand why it is necessary that they be encultured in order for there to be civilization, and not mere technological progress. ;The dissertation explains the doctrine by relating it to teleological explanation in general, and by proceeding to apply it in understanding how one can have knowledge in the areas of interpretation of human cultures through their artifacts, especially language; of the historical understanding of science; and of historiography. ;Vico's very early solution of the Homeric problem is examined. His doctrine of the evolution of human culture as reflected in the development of language compares favorably to work now being done by Eric Havelock. ;His understanding of the relationship between mathematics and the physical sciences displays a notable modernity of attitude, and Vico can profitably be studied as a precursor of contemporary model theory. ;In the study of history, Vico's doctrine of Providence provides a way of understanding human history as subject neither to determinism nor to unintelligible chance. His method gives us a way to make contingency part of an intelligible structure, and so an object of knowledge