Strony redakcyjne

Tom 16 (2014)

Temat olbrzymi w Nauce nowej i Nowych Atenach

Ewa Kosowska

Strony: 71 - 83

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Abstrakt

Giant theme in New Science and New Athens…


The idea of New Science, substantially preceding the 19th century concepts which concern the origin of culture and the rules of social development, is abundant in details deprived of unambiguous interpretative basis. Mentions of giants can be exemplary here. These tall creatures, whose bones were found in Europe at that time, both intrigued and stimulated human imagination. Their presence allowed Vico to introduce in the 17th and early 18th centuries an original protoevolutionary theory. It also helped Benedykt Chmielowski, a priest and ambitious author of the most superb Sarmatian encyclopedia published in the mid-18th century, work out an idiosyncratic catalogue of such findings. The main purpose of this paper is to compare the two, almost simultaneously created, interpretations.