Giambattista Vico and the criticality of University: a (symbolic) lesson for the modern world

This paper is focused on Vico’s reflection on the incoming shift in the University of his time, involved in the cultural and educational changes bolstered by the advent of the typographic society. The purpose of this study is to point out the connection between the old and the new criticalities that characterize the process of modernization of current Universities which are in turn projected towards the functional complexity of post-modernity. Particular attention is paid to Vico’s observations on the diffusion of printing books and texts: from this point of view, the advent of the press seems to stimulate the diffusion of superficial knowledge and the oblivion of classical authors, buried by the anxiety of modernization.