ENG100H1 Lecture : Vico.docx
Document Summary
Vico is very much more appreciated in the 20th century than in the 18th. Since the 17th century, we"ve thought that truth must be something measurable but it leaves the whole graft of life out: it doesn"t take into account values, beliefs, aesthetics, etc. Vico was one of the first ones to look back at rhetorical. He was a professor of rhetoric for over 4 decades in the 18th century. He didn"t really relish it although he was very good at it. He wanted to be in the law faculty. It was the job of the professor of rhetoric to look at the big picture for the university: which is what this piece is about. Vico doesn"t like where the university is when he gives this address because what bothered him is that the university was not giving the student the practical knowledge they needed. They were teaching them things that were not all that useful.
