Språkets mytiska begynnelse

Sammanfattning: In this study, I examine how the Italian philosopher and rhetorician Giambattista Vicodescribes the relationships between language, thinking and environment in the interpretationof classical myths. The results of the investigation show that the traditional concepts of"pietas" and "religion", that Vico perceives in connection with the relationship between theslave and the master, are cognitively processed by Vico by applying rhetorical figures such asmetaphor and metonymy. In the analysis, I therefore reason that the original language isperceived by Vico as a projection of the thinking that attributes a semantic relevance to theworld outside in relation to what I interpret as survival or social survival and that Vico callssalvation. Around the relationship between thinking, objects and meaning, Vico constructs theconcept of "consciousness" and this also governs his view of the development of history. Inmy analysis, I interpret and describe Vico's "consciousness" and “self-consciousness” withthe support of phenomenological reflections borrowed from Husserl, Heidegger andMerleau-Ponty.