
Vico and the Maker's Knowledge Tradition
Praxis and History
Maurizio Esposito(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 17. July 2025
Book
Hardback
276 pages
978-1-009-43602-1 (ISBN)
Description
Published in 1710, Giambattista Vico's groundbreaking On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians argued, against Descartes, that knowledge is more about making and producing than speculating and theorising. Historicised activities precede any kind of ethereal abstraction. Maurizio Esposito situates Vico's epistemology of praxis within the longstanding tradition of the maker's knowledge perspective and shows how Vico transformed the ancient idea that knowledge is a form of making into a humanist and existential principle. Humans do not merely fabricate tools and transform nature; they also create symbolic spaces in which different forms of thinking and understanding evolve. Esposito explores the possibility that Vico envisioned a non-Cartesian version of modernity, where praxis, rather than reason, drives human history. This alternative modernity has directly or indirectly influenced some of the most significant philosophical traditions of the past two centuries and is more relevant today than ever.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
563 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-43602-1 (9781009436021)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Maurizio Esposito teaches History of Science in the Department of Philosophy 'Piero Martinetti' at the University of Milan. He has published widely on the history and philosophy of natural and human sciences.
Content
Introduction: the 'maker's knowledge tradition' through and beyond Vico; 1. Maker's knowledge traditions between ancients and moderns; 2. Vico and the making of 'Praxis epistemology'; 3. After and beyond Vico; 4. Praxis epistemology I: from Vico to Marxism; 5. Praxis epistemology II: from Vico to pragmatism; 6. Praxis epistemology III: from vico to phenomenology; Conclusion: Techne and Physis, again; Appendix: two challenges to the verum/factum principle; References; Index.