EL RECURSO DE LAS COSAS HUMANAS Y LA ANÁFORA DEL “RETORNARON”

This essay aims to show that the theory of “ricorso” is not attributable either to a cyclic or to a lineal conception of history. What Vico aims at is achieving an integration of those two classical perspectives. In this way, he abandons an abstract general philosophy of history and starts, in contrast, an inquiry into what remains permanent in the experience of human affairs. In this sense, the ricorso is a possibility that providence avails in order to guarantee the continuity of humanity, a remedy in times of crisis and decadence. Nevertheless, the “ricorso” is principally the way in which the principle of all “corso”, which remains hidden or diluted in the course itself, reappears clearly in its abandonment of all temporal declination, and in its possible duplicity of generation and corruption.