Book excerpt: According to Goetsch, Vico proposes that we abandon the alliance between logic and metaphysics and instead form one between logic and the rhetorical and poetical conceptions of human understanding that inform the human community. In the way Vico revives the ancient sense of rhetoric found in Aristotle, who stated that logic and rhetoric are counterparts. Vico's philosophical system is best exemplified by the 114 axioms at the base of his New Science. These axioms, which range over a puzzling variety of subjects, do not follow a logical or geometric model in the conventional sense, making it hard to account for Vico's claim that he thinks in the "geometric manner." Goetsch asserts, however, that they are used by Vico to express what Aristotle called maxims - "thoughts worth thinking" - which establish the fundamental points necessary to speak about human realities.