• Preface; 1. The structure of the Scienza Nuova; 2. Critique of current historiography; 3. Human nature and social change; 4. Human nature and historical change; 5. Providence; 6. The character of Vico's metaphysics; 7. The problem of knowledge; 8. The problem of methodology; 9. The ideal eternal history: its theoretical character; 10. The ideal eternal history: its deductive character; 11. The ideal eternal history: its sociological content; 12. The ideal eternal history: its historical content; 13. Philosophy and historical interpretation; 14. Philosophy and historical confirmation; 15. Theory of knowledge; 16. The character of Vico's theory of knowledge; 17. Law, providence and the barbarism of reflection; 18. Appendix. Humanist interpretations; Bibliography; Index.

'Dr Pompa has reconstructed Vico's arguments with a precision not to be found in Vico himself, and his work leads the reader in a progressive fashion to the fundamental insights upon which Vico's project is founded … No other work in English attempts to exposit Vico's thought with such clarity and systematic attention.' Philosophy and Rhetoric