Vico’s New Sicence And The Thought Of Civic Education

Vico is a thinker in the Age of Enlightenment of Italy in the18th century,thephilosophy of history, the philosophy of culture, Cultural anthropology and otherideas of which had a deep impact in the the history of modern intellectual of theworld. In the era of Vico,in which the rationalism that Descartes represented had thedominance,the rationalist emphasized rational and neglected the emotional,underlinedthe natural sciences and ignored the humanities. Therefore, Vico establish a newscience of history of human society against the Descartes rationalism.Vico′s ideas of"new science"is the reflection of the the main ideas since the Renaissance movement,learning the essence of the tradition of Italian humanism, such as attaching greatimportance to the study of history and inheritance of ancient culturalheritage,linguistics,rhetoric, people-oriented, paying attention to the all-rounddevelopment of people,attaching great importance to the humanities, and emphasizingthe role of morality. At the same time, Vico learned much important thoughts from thescientific revolution and the thinkers of enlightenment in the17th century, especiallythe empiricism and rationalism. However, it is the focus and reflection of rationalism,making Vico advance its unique scientific thought.Vico′s "new science" is the new knowledge-based view built up according to hisview of "to create is truth".Vico’s view of"truths that create" is the view ofknowledge, which is put forward on the basis of the Italian humanist tradition and thecritique of rationalism’s old concept of knowledge of Descartes.He got the essencefrom the tradition of Italian humanism and criticized the Descartes’s rationalism thatblindly admired and tried to play down the emotional rational view of knowledge.Heproposed an imaginative understanding of knowledge,which is called the poeticwisdom.Vico presented its unique civic ideological education based on the newknowledge-based view.Vico believed that human education is the formation of the religious poetry, poeticethical, economic and poetic verse in three eras evolving political and developmentprocess in the civil world.In order to prevent the civil world into third worldbarbarism, Vico proposed civic education as a model of human education on the basisof poetic wisdom.Vico advocates the intellectual and moral education for civiceducation, namely the wisdom and virtue of the civitizen.Vico also proposed themethod of the civic education in accordance with its five principles of civic education.Vico’s civil education advocated the distinguish and differentiate to thehumanities and natural sciences,and then combine the two;focus on civicawareness,nurturing the political consciousness and legal awareness of citizens;strengthening the moral training of citizens, especially through the teachings ofreverence to the teachings of virtue;proposing the aesthetic education of citizens, so asto nurture citizens with elegant taste and personality and promote emotional educationof citizen.Vico′s thought of civic education has an important historicalsignificance,and also has an important reference for modern education.