Creators of Culture

Question of the day: Who was Giambattista Vico, and why haven't we heard more about him? Apparently he was the father or our modern idea of the humanities. He opposed Descartes's notion that "human knowledge has to conform to the mathematical ideal of certainty . . . " (100) He argued that, "made in God's image, we are creators of culture" and "humanistic knowledge is known by participation" (101). He called this scientia nuova ("new science"). What an exciting parallel to Polanyi's concept of personal knowledge!