Abstract

The essay aims to trace a parallel between Vico and Hobbes, about the role some emotions have in the two different political philosophies. The leading idea is that some interesting aspects of Vico's thought, and perhaps his philosophical style, can be better understood in the frame of an array of factors closely connected with the different roles that emotions play in each of the two systems. The thesis is therefore that Hobbes's political rationality is centred on a white emotion, fear; Vico's, on a red emotion, shame.