Abstract

[About the concept of conatus in Vico’s philosophy].The aim of this study is to show how the concept of conatus changes statute in the passage from De antiquissima to the New Science. In the first work conatus is defined as the metaphysical virtue thanks to which the motion begins in the physical world. In the New Science the conatus has a more complex role: on the one hand it has still to do with a beginning, because it reactivates the mind and the understanding of the first humans being; on the other hand, it is a permanent principle, because it restrains the irrational passions of the giants, putting in motion other more contained passions, useful to the birth of society.