Spring 2010 - Interpretation

2 8 6
I n t e r p r e t a t i o n
I.3)—has no “science” (scienza or scientia), but only “conscience” (coscienza
or conscientia) of the order of nature, insofar as to possess science or pure
knowledge of something is to contain that something’s elements (compare
ibid., Ch. I.1-2, and SN44, “Of the Principles,” par. 2). Men do not contain
the constitutive elements of that which is “between” the private imaginative
worlds of men—of the world of “things themselves” (res ipsae; De Antiquissima,
Ch. V.5, last par.). That which transcends the world of the imagination
is what all men “divine” or “intend” in object-forms, the cause of which they
are impiously tempted to attribute to themselves. But for each of us and so
for each nation, these object-forms ultimately converge into one, insofar as
thought naturally tends towards uniformity and universality (SN44, “Of the
Elements,” XIII, XXII, XLIII, XLVII, LXIII). The ultimate impiety is that of
the “atheist” who believes in his heart that he himself is the author of the
object-form in which all other object-forms of experience converge (compare
SN44, “Of the Principles,” par. 6; Bk. II.3, par. 1-2; “Conclusion of the Work,”
par. 2 and 4; Risposta 1711, part 3, par. 11). The Author of the natural order
transcending our imagination cannot be the human mind (which authors
only its own illusions qua illusions), insofar as it leaves the elements of all
things outside of itself, but one infinite Mind (determined with Christianity
as “Queen free and absolute of Nature”—SN44, “Idea of the Work,” par. 2;
compare ibid., “Idea of the Work,” par. 3, De Uno, Ch. XXXVIII, LVI, LXXIX,
and De Ratione, Ch. IX), the very being (essere) of our existing (esistenza;
Risposta 1712, part. 3). All that our private minds commonly retain, grasp or
conceive on their own is an image or figment of the imagination (compare
SN44, “Idea of the Work,” par. 1 and SN30, “Of the Principles of this Science,”
par. 1). Yet, the world of lies we commonly imagine partakes in a world
beyond the imagination, just as existence partakes in being. For it is true that
we feign our world, but we do not feign it merely as we wish: our wishes are
based on an order that we do not feign (compare SN44, “Idea of the Work,”
par. 2; “Conclusion of the Work,” par. 3-4; De Uno, Bk. I, Ch. CLII; on the
world of the imagination as “cave” or grotta of lies that are providentially
redeemed, see SN30, “Of the Principles of this Science,” par. 1-2). Now, this
order—which properly speaking is the fullness of order—is “metaphysical”
in the respect that it transcends the “physical” world of the imagination;
this “metaphysical” order is ordered or authored by “something” that is not
formed by anything, and that is thus not a body. This “something,” Vico
calls—after medieval Scholasticism—“most pure mind” (purissima mens) or
“perfect reason” (perfecta ratio; Oratio II, par. 8).