Destruction of Empire #2: Vico—Society Cannot Survive Without Religion (Italy)
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The “Destruction of Empire” blog series explores why nations collapse, based on warnings from history.
You can read all the individual articles here.
Giambattista Vico (1668-1744)
Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) was an Italian philosopher, historian, jurist, and rhetorician from Naples. While he was relatively unknown during his lifetime, from the nineteenth century to today, “his influence [became] widespread in the humanities and social sciences.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) His most famous work is the Scienza Nuova, or The New Science, which he originally published in 1725, and later released a third version in 1744 just before his death. His purpose was to articulate a theory of history and human nature that combined the “science” (knowledge) of nations, nature, and metaphysics (religion, etc.).
At the conclusion of his great work, Vico offered a stark warning about the connection between a society’s loss of religion, and its continued cohesion (§1109)[1]:
My New Science has shown in detail how providence caused the world’s first governments to base themselves on religion, which alone made the state of families possible. Next, as they developed into heroic civil governments, or aristocracies, religion clearly provided the principal stable foundation. Then, as they advanced to popular governments, religion likewise served as the people’s means of attaining democracies. Finally, as they come to rest in monarchical governments, this same religion must be the shield of rulers. If peoples lose their religion, nothing remains to keep them living in society. They have no shield for their defense, no basis for their decisions, no foundation for their stability, and no form by which they exist in the world.
He then excoriates those who would contend society does not need religion, or that philosophy alone is an adequate substitute. Vico, a Catholic, argues that since Christianity places the ultimate good in Heaven, only it—through the power of grace (in the Catholic view, the divine life of the Trinity in the human soul)—is capable of inspiring human virtue in a way that philosophy, logic, sentiment, and other more earth-bound religions cannot (§1110)[2]:
Francesco Botticini, Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1475-76)
Now let [Pierre] Bayle [a French protestant philosopher] explain how nations can in fact exist without any knowledge of God! And let Polybius examine the truth of his statement that if there were philosophers in the world it would need no religions! Only religion can make people perform virtuous works by appealing to their feelings, which effectively move people to action. By contrast, the logical maxims of the philosophers about virtue only assist moral eloquence in inciting the feelings to fulfill the obligations of virtue. There is an essential difference between our true Christian religion and all the other religions, which are false. In Christianity, divine grace inspires virtuous works for the sake of an infinite and eternal good. And since this good lies beyond the feelings, the mind must move the feelings to virtuous actions. By contrast, false religions have as their goal the finite and transient goods both of this life and the next; and in both they expect to find blessedness in physical pleasures. Hence, their feelings must drag the mind to perform virtuous works.
Vico summarizes the entire thesis of his masterpiece in its final sentence (§1112)[3]:
In sum, all the observations contained in this work lead to one conclusion. My New Science is indissolubly linked to the study of piety; and unless one is pious, one cannot be truly wise.