Why did Giambattista Vico reject the idea that ancient people thought like Enlightenment scholars?

Giambattista Vico rejected the assumption that ancient people thought like Enlightenment scholars—a bias he termed the "conceit of scholars"—because he believed it led to anachronistic and falsifying interpretations of history.12

Vico argued that human nature is not static but historical, meaning mental capacities and worldviews change and develop over time. He contended that early humans were not rational in the modern sense; instead, they were imaginative and poetic beings who lacked the capacity for abstract logic. According to Vico, these primitive individuals expressed themselves through metaphors and myths—such as the figure of Zeus—because their mental processes were fundamentally different from those of later, rationalized societies.231

By insisting that historians must imaginatively enter the spirit of past ages rather than imposing contemporary cultural frameworks upon them, Vico sought to establish history as a reputable discipline. He maintained that because humans create their own institutions, they can truly understand them only by recognizing the specific historical conditions and developmental stages—the ages of gods, heroes, and men—that shaped those societies.241