Giambattista Vico

Giambattista Vico was an Italian philosopher who argued that history is shaped by human actions, thoughts, and cultures rather than purely by nature or divine intervention. He introduced the concept of "verum factum," suggesting that we understand what we create. Vico emphasized the importance of context in interpreting historical events, aligning with constructivism and relativism, which hold that knowledge is constructed rather than absolute. His ideas on historicism stress how societies evolve through cycles, intersecting with memory and identity, as collective narratives shape how communities perceive themselves and their past.