'the human judgment regulated by knowledge is the foundation of the power of nations.'"[1] And this is the question so much debated in our times and which tends constantly to establish itself on a sociological basis.
Vico is a splendid star which rises in an intellectual darkness that could hardly be more dense; and this explains the hostile criticisms which in those days his theories provoked. These criticisms are made principally in the name of religion; for instance, those of Romano Finetti, Lami and Appiano Buonafede, who placed him alongside of Grotius, Spinoza, and Montesquieu.
On the other hand, not a few made much of the works of Vico. Passing over Delfico, Gravina, Romagnosi, etc., who came after, there is still another name which cannot be passed over in silence. It is that of Gaetano Filangieri. "Among all the writers who gave themselves to the study of law, some have treated the material simply as jurists, some as philosophers, some, even, as politicians, but always embracing in their view a single part of this immense edifice; some, like Montesquieu, have reasoned rather of what ought to be done, but no one has yet given a complete and well-reasoned system of legislation; no one has yet reduced the material to a secure and well-ordered science, uniting means and rules and theory and practice. This is what I have undertaken to do in this work, which has for its title the Science of Legislation." Thus writes Gaetano Filangieri in the preface of his colossal and immortal work.
In respect to the comprehensive and truly sociological views which inspire this book, it is enough to say that Filangieri, when he was writing it, thought of following it with two other works which were to be entitled respectively, Una nuova scienza delle scienze, and Storia civile universale e perpetua. These titles alone, so expressive and clear, show plainly enough that Filangieri already had in mind a comprehensive social science, such as is
- ↑ G. B. Vico Principi di Scienza Nuova. Libro II, Cap. III. p. 42. L. Ursuni-Scuderi, G.B. Vico come fondatore della sociologia moderna, Palermo, 1888, p. 16 e 17.
