De nostri temporis studiorum ratione is the seventh inaugural oration given by Giambattista Vico at the University of Naples, the former six having been given from 1699 to 1707.
Given the fact that it refers back to the Jesuit ratio studiorum,[citation needed] Vico's title may be most literally rendered as "The Method of the Studies of our Times."
In doing so, Vico endorses a pedagogical project focused on developing the rhetorical prowess of the individual in contrast to the Cartesian pedagogy widespread among learned circles of his time.
Vico set out to compare the study methods of his period to those of the Ancients, with an eye to developing the importance of rhetoric in enriching the life of the student.
[2] Other fields, such as mathematics, metaphysics, and Christian theology should be studied later in one's life due to their abstract subject-matter as one's mind becomes able to grasp such concepts.
[1] (p. 14)Gianturco makes note of this central anti-Cartesian remark: "Vico felt that Descartes had completely undermined topics with his theory of the clear and distinct perception.
The pedagogical techniques of the ancients, Vico argued, were better suited to bring to light this aspect of human flourishing despite scientific advancements in medicine, chemistry, and physics.
In his preface to De ratione, Donald Philip Verene states that the work is "widely regarded as the first statement of Vico's original philosophical position as well as a treasure-house of educational ideas.
[6] David Marshall in his analysis of Vico's rhetoric notes with regard to the verum factum principle that:The verum-factum principle appears to be an unlikely case because, for Vico, the clearest example of the convertibility of verum and factum had initially been mathematics, a field in which human beings understood the fundaments precisely because the fundaments were artifacts of human definition.