Benedetto Croce
From Philosopedia
Croce, Benedetto (25 February 1866 - 20 November 1952)
Croce, who was an idealist philosopher as well as an Italian politician and critic, wrote about the philosophy of history and aesthetics. He became a leading Italian intellectual of the first half of the twentieth century.
He was born in Pescasseroli in Italy's Abruzzi region. Raised in a strict Catholic environment, he turned away from Catholicism and became an atheist from the age of 18 on. When 23 during an earthquake that hit his village, his home, his mother, his father, and his only sister were all killed - he was buried and barely survived. Inheriting the family's fortune, he was enabled to devote much of his time to studying philosophy and to go into politics, where he became Minister of Public Education and, later, a life-long member of the Italian Senate. He opposed participation by Italy in World War I and, openly opposing the Fascist led Italy's Liberal Party.
One of Croce's contemporaries wrote that, sometime around 1900, Croce had challenged a colleague to a duel over the issue of metaphysical philosophy. Observed Peter Brown, "Plainly, the author of the memoir considered that, for his readers, the event was so normal, so much part of the academic life of Naples at the turn of the century, as to require no explanation.
Croce was influenced by Hegel and German idealists such as Fichte. Croce’s idealism held that reality consists of spirit that is monistic in manifestation. His impact upon intellectuals has been described in detail by David D. Roberts.
Selected Bibliography
- Materialismo storico ed economia marxistica, 1900
- L'Estetica come scienza dell'espressione e linguistica generale, 1902
- Logica come scienza del concetto puro:, 1909
- Breviario di estetica, 1912
- Saggio sul Hegel, 1912
- Teoria e storia della storiografia, 1917
- Racconto degli racconti (first translation into Italian from Neapolitan of Giambattista Basile's Lo cunto de li cunti), 1925
- Manifesto of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, 1 May, 1925 in La Critica Ultimi saggi, 1935
- La poesia, 1936
- La storia come pensiero e come azione, 1938
- Il carattere della filosofia moderna, 1941
- Filosofia e storiografia, 1949
In 1934, the Vatican prohibited the reading of all of his works.
His Final Years
His views on idealism have some negative critics among naturalistic and secular humanists, who do find valuable his views on aesthetics. One philosopher and his chief English follower, Wildson Carr, said Croce’s philosophy is neo-Hegelian but “the religious activity has no place in it. To him religion is mythology.”
One American admirer was a naturalist, Patrick Romanell, who wrote La Polemica entre Croce y Gentile (1946) and Benedetto Croce: Guide to Aesthetics (1965).
When Croce died in Naples, his funeral procession included thousands of common citizens who spilled into the streets to pay homage to one they believe was Italy's most important Italian philosopher and historian of the 20th century.
