Giambattista Vico: Keys to the "New Science": Translations, Commentaries, and Essays

The True and the Certain: From On the One Principle and One End of Universal Law

39 The True and the Certain From On the One Principle and One End of Universal Law Translation by John D. Schaeffer The philosophical problem that Giambattista Vico finds in the lawistherelationshipofthetrue(verum)andthecertain(certum)— that is, the connection that exists in the law between the law as rational and universally valid and the law as positive, historical (the product of human will deriving validity from authority as present in particular societies). He expresses this connection in the prologue and in chapters 82 and 83 of the first book of his Universal Law, On the One Principle and One End of Universal Law. The distinction between the true and the certain, as well as their necessary connection, is the basis of Vico’s philosophical-philological method in the New Science. Philosophy aims at rational universal truths, and philology studies what is produced in society by acts of human will and authority. In axiom 10 of the New Science Vico claims: “Philosophy contemplates reason, whence comes knowledge of the true; philology observes that of which human choice is author, whence comes consciousness of the certain” (NS 138). From the Prologue: Definitions of the True and the Certain [30] “True” and “certain” are two words that must be distinguished , just as everyone distinguishes what is false from what is merely doubtful.1 Indeed, falsehood is as far from the doubtful as 1. Vico has a footnote here: “Just as we set forth in the first book, ‘On Metaphysics ,’ of our On the Most Ancient Wisdom of the Italians Unearthed from the Origins Giambattista Vico: Keys to the New Science 40 the certain is from the true. If these two things are not carefully distinguished, given that many true things are doubtful, it might appear that a thing can be certain and doubtful at the same time. On the other hand, since many false things are held to be certain, they might be held to be both false and true. [31] Truth arises when the mind is in conformity with the order of things; the certain arises when consciousness is secure from doubt. That which conforms to the order of things is called reason . Thus, if the order of things is eternal, reason is eternal, from which it follows that truth is eternal. But if the order of things is not permanent in every place for everyone or everything, then reason will have only probable knowledge of things and achieve only a degree of verisimilitude in cases requiring action. As truth rests on reason, so the certain rests upon authority, whether of the senses, called £utoy…a [seeing with one’s own eyes] or on the words of others, which is called “authority” in particular. From both of these persuasion is born. But authority itself is a part of reason: for if the senses are not deceived and the words of others are true, then we are persuaded of the truth. If, on the other hand, the sense impressions or the words are false, we will also be persuaded of falsehood. “Prejudices” should be attributed to all such false persuasions.2 Chapter 82 True Law and Certain Law [1]Thereasonofthelawisthatwhichmakesthelawtrue,andthe true is the proper and perpetual concomitant of necessary law. The certain is part of the true. [2] The certain is a proper and perpetual attribute of positive law, but the certain is nevertheless a part of the true, as in the definition of the Latin Language.” See the trans. of Lucia M. Palmer (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1988). 2. Vico comments in UL bk. 3, note 4, “Just as authority generates persuasion, so reason, when it has the character of necessity, generates knowledge [scientiam]. Reason that does not have the force of necessity generates opinion.” From On the One Principle and One End of Universal Law 41 of civil law by Ulpian we cited above.3 Lawgivers seize that part of the truth and make it certain by means of their authority because men may not be able to hold to it merely from a sense of shame. This is the rationale of Ulpian’s definition. Thus, in all legal fictions that ground all positive law—for the natural law is both true and noble—there is to be found a truth dictated by reason. Thus we have the well-known passage from Ulpian: “The law is harsh, but it is written,” by which he...