Note 13. To the Subsection “Spiritual View of History (Progressive View of History)”
According to the view of history of Enlightenment thought, God’s power was excluded from history because history was thought to be made by man. But Vico thought that even though history was made by man, still it is under God’s providence. This means that history is the product of human power and God’s providence. That view is in accord with the Unification view of history. Also, Vico thought that, although history is mainly in the process of progress or development, there are patterns of development and decline in history, and thus he grasped history as spiral progress. In that respect, he was a forerunner for the appearance of the cultural view of history advocated by Spengler and Toynbee.