The author argues that Vico's critique of conceit does not refer only to nations and cultures, and to philosophical-theological theories focused on origins in ancient and mythical times and on the relationship between sacred and profane history. Vico's critique is also an ethical-philosophical device that invites humanity, now at the height of the civilizing process, to guard against any form of conceit by nations (in contemporary terms: ethnocentric pride), as well as any self-important manifestations by intellectuals (i.e., all forms of anthropocentric philosophy and theory).
Ethnocentrism; Anthropocentrism; Ethics; Interculturalism; Giambattista Vico