Vico versus Freud: Creativity and the Unconscious

Abstract

In this article, Grassi analyzes and compares the Logic of Imagination interpretation of Vico proposed by Verene. Verene uses Vico as a guide for deconstructing traditional philosophical rationality. Grassi agrees that Vico’s theory of the origin of language and the giants implies a critique of traditional logic, but he argues against interpreting it in a psychoanalytic sense and demonstrates that Vico’s theory about the source of myths and fantastic ideas is much closer to Heidegger's existentialism.