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Vico's political philosophy as a political theology

Presentation seeks to reconstruct Vico’s political philosophy which is based on the metaphysical tradition (regardless of his opposition to metaphysics), and to show how it can be characterized as a political theology. Vico's analysis is based on the classical typology of political community (rule) set by Plato and Aristotle, but it includes the philosophy of history aiming to show, contrary to usual considerations, that the political forms of government moved from the metaphysical principle of one (monarchy), the fewness (aristocracy), all (democracy) and finally ended in a metaphysical postulate of one that is best expressed again in the monarchy. For this method, Vico uses the classical pattern of political theology with the principle of divine providence in forming the political community, because it is a central concept of political theology. Therefore, it is the metaphysical principle of the sovereignty of God which has been transfered into the civil sovereignty and marks the latest instance of deciding located in the metaphysical-one, which marks the sovereign political communities regardless are they monarchical, aristocratic or democratic. This is why Vico shows that the first communities were based on religious postulates, and afterword on the philosophical. In this framework Vico tries, not entirely successfull, to oppose the modern political philosophers, especially Bodin, Hobbes and Machiavelli. Although, for Vico the state (government) forms are not, in the formal sense, important because people (plebs) change the form of government under various circumstances, Vico’s ideal form of state is enlightened monarchy, because it is closest to the metaphysical principle of unity, modeled on the divinely established order. The author concludes that Vico’s New science can be defined as an important piece on political philosophy based on political theology, which, in today's conditions of material globalization, once more becomes an important position in overcoming the crisis of modern materialism of the world.

political philosophy; political theology; state; providence; metaphysics; sovereignty

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