Vico recognizes that beings are not the starting point of an original for of metaphysical thought, but rather that beings appear as unconcealed in the light of "ingenious images," through the claim of Being. In Vico's attempt to clarify the essential difference between beings and that which Ingenium reveals we find that insight which, in our terminology, has been called the ontological difference. Vico writes: "Ingenium and nature meant the same thing for the Italians. This is because the human Ingenium is itself the nature of man... Those who excell in this capacity were called by the Italians 'ingegneri.'" Metaphorical activity plays a central role in this process. It provides, on the basis of the recognition of similarities, the images in whose light we "read" reality.

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