Vico and Jaynes: Neurocultural and Cognitive Operations in the Origin of Consciousness

Robert E. Haskell, New Vico Studies, 1993, XI.
Reprinted in Marcel Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind: The Theories of Julian Jaynes (Julian Jaynes Society, 2016).

Summary: This paper will first explore significant parallels between Vico and Jaynes; second, suggest the equivalence of the mind of Vico’s “first men” with Jaynes’ bicameral mind; third, and what is perhaps more important, it will suggest that Jaynes’ theory of consciousness and its evidential base generally support Vico’s historical theory of mental development.