Why did Giambattista Vico believe young people should not study formal logic first?

Giambattista Vico argued against teaching formal logic to young people at the beginning of their education because he believed it inverted the natural course of human development.1

In his work De Nostri Temporis Studiorum Ratione, Vico contended that children first require the development of their mental powers through the cultivation of memory and imagination. He advocated for a curriculum focused on languages, poets, historians, and orators to foster "common sense"—a practical form of reasoning acquired through experience and the study of probabilities.1

Vico believed that introducing logic too early, in the absence of this foundational common sense, forces young students to make judgments before they possess the necessary knowledge or maturity to do so. By prioritizing abstract rationalistic systems—such as those proposed by Cartesian thinkers—over the humanistic development of the mind, educators risked undermining the natural growth of a student's capacity for practical judgment.1