V

Vico, Giambattista (1668–1744) Italian politi-
cal and legal philosopher

An early LIBERALpolitical theorist, Vico develops a his-
torical philosophy in which civil rights and LIBERTY
emerge with human reason. Earlier human society
reflects the family organization and ABSOLUTIST DESPOT-
ISMof the father. As descendants inherit PROPERTY, they
establish an ARISTOCRACY. Eventually, doubts about the
semigodly status of these aristocratic rulers or heroes
cause the majority of people to rebel, claiming rights
themselves. This spreads the SOVEREIGNTYor govern-
mental authority more democratically.
Vico fears that the individualistic self-INTERESTof
popular government will lead to ANARCHYand chaos, as
PLATOdetailed in The Republic.This causes a recur-
rence of TYRANNYto impose social order. This HISTORI-
CISMobviously influences the later DIALECTICALtheory
of history found in HEGELand CROCE.
Vico taught rhetoric at the University of Naples,
Italy. His major books include On the Ancient Wisdom
of the Italians(1710), On the Coherence of the Jurist
(1721), and The New Science(1725, 1730, 1744).

Further Readings
Tagliacozzo, G., ed. Vico: Past and Present.Atlantic Highlands,
N.J.: Humanities Press, 1981.

Tagliacozza, G., and Verene, D. P., eds. Giambattista Vico’s Sci-

ence of Humanity.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University

Press, 1976.

violence

The inflicting of physical harm, such as killing, injur-

ing, terrorizing, and torturing living beings. Political

violence takes the form of violent, armed warfare, rev-

olution, rioting, assassination, executions, and torture.

The history of political thought displays several

attitudes toward violence from total rejection of it (in

PACIFISM) to acceptance and even encouragement of it

(in MARXISM, COMMUNISM, ISLAM, and FASCISM) to

acknowledgement of violence as a political reality but

also an undesirable necessity to be minimized as much

as possible (as in REALISMand JUST-WAR DOCTRINE).

The theories that favor violence give various rea-

sons for this view. Marxism insists that political revo-

lution is a historical necessity and that it ushers in a

more economically advanced social system. Peaceful

change is not possible for communists, so those social

democrats who try to establish socialism by parliamen-

tary means are just holding back PROGRESS. MARXISM-

LENINISM also justifies violent revolution by the

rationale that existing society already has so much vio-

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