Abstract

G.B. Vico reworks some essential aspects of the idea of people as it was being constructed in the modern age, between the 16th and 18th Centuries: in particular, the partiality and conflictuality of the people, the distinction between people and multitude and the identification of the people with the nation. The position of the Neapolitan philosopher is presented in terms of an open challenge to both Machiavelli and modern rationalism. However, it is a challenge that ends up taking shape not as a frontal alternative, but as a particular and original variant of early modernity.