"G.V.__ argued systematically that the understanding of a past society - even of an earlier period in the history of one's own society - was a demanding, if rewarding, intellectual task.  The modern reader opening a work by Homer or Livy had to realize that it did not describe individuals like himself, men and women whose experiences, feelings, and ideas would be immediately recognizable.  Only by mastering the general laws of social and cultural evolution that Vico himself had formulated could one avoid committing basic errors."—Thank you, Giambattista Vico (1668-1774) for New Science.  Thank you, Anthony Grafton, for the "Introduction" of Penguin Book's 1999 edition (quote from p.xi of "Introduction").  Thank you, Chris & Anna Celenza for access to the library from which this book was borrowed. *Giambattista Vico