Open to Providence

One of the ideas that mystified me in Giambattista Vico’s Scienza Nuova (New Science) was the importance of divine providence to his new science. Like piety in Plato, providence in Vico seemed an anachronistic idea in an otherwise modern work.

Now I know less – which is better. Providence is a looking-before. It is the foundation of open (source and research) movements. It is a trust in things working out if you get your part right and open up right to the unexpected. Providence is a making ready for the unexpected future, which unlike teological philosophies that try to control/predict the future, does not presume to know.

Providence is not blind trust in market forces to cure that which we have given up trying to fix. That is a turning away from looking before that is used to justify short term gain. It is a rationalization of selfishness – “if I look after myself here and now the hand of God will fix the downstream consequences”. Providence is a middle way between complete control and abandonment.

The open movements are trying to find that middle ground where you frame a project in a way that leaves it open for others to contribute in unexpected ways.

From Vico’s introduction, “La qual condotta della provvedenza divina Ë una delle cose che principalmente s’occupa questa Scienza di ragionare; ond’ella, per tal aspetto, vien ad essere una teologia civile ragionata della provvedenza divina.” (“Idea dell’Opera”, Vico,
Scienze Nuova)
My translation, “This unfolding of divine providence is one the principal things that about which this Science reasons; this Science, in this sense, thus becomes a civil and reasoned theology of divine providence.”

To download the full text see E-texts from Liber Liber.