Vico on the Decline of Humanity

"Human history, says Vico, passes through a cycle of three ages: the age of gods, the age of heroes, and the age of men. The age of gods is the most primitive age: it is the age when men are more beast than human, and it is the age when these primitive creatures believe that the world is shaped by supernatural forces with anthropomorphic characteristics.  The age of heroes is the age when these anthropomorphic gods are replaced by human icons.  It is the age when these icons or heroes are held to be divine, not only by the people at large but also by themselves.  The
age of men is the age of democracy: it is the age when men finally come to see all men as equals; and it is the age when men, intoxicated by their own powers of reasoning, see themselves as masters of the universe.  Allied to each of these stages is a distinct language.  The language of the age of gods is sacred or divine; the language of the age of heroes is symbolic, and the language of the age of men is vernacular."

     After googleing Vico after class on Wednesday, I found a very interesting dissertation on his works on the Philosophy Pathways website; above is an excerpt that expands a bit more on the first three phases of human history that we talked about in class. The "chaos", or degraded phase is not directly listed, but is understood as the result of the decline of humanity. 

     The author goes on to describe how Vico presents a concept of history that sees humankind working its way to its inevitable dissolution that is driven by an "unhuman" force. However, this dissolution is not its absolute demise, for
out of the ashes of chaos there emerge survivors who initiate a renaissance of primitive religious belief.   

     Relating this to our discussion about the "feather" being everything, it makes shockingly clear sense as to why Shakespeare consciously writes in the way he does - reaching from the "men" category to "hero" and, to some, perhaps nearing the "gods".