Giovanni Gentile Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944) was an Italian philosopher, educator, and politician. As a neo-Hegelianist, he developed an extremely rigid form of idealism referred to as “actual idealism” or “actualism.” He eventually considered himself the “philosopher of Fascism,” even though he showed an interest for this movement only after the success of the 1922 March on Rome, which brought fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to power. In fact, some of Gentile’s most important philosophical works, such as The Theory of Mind as Pure Act (1916) and Logic as Theory of Knowledge (1917) were written before the rise of fascism in Italy.

Born in Castelvetrano, Sicily, Gentile soon discovered his vocation for philosophy, joining the faculty of the University of Palermo in 1906 and subsequently moving to Pisa (1914) and Rome (1917). Between 1922 and 1924, he held the post of minister of education and implemented a complete reform of the Italian educational system. While minister he also took on the challenge of developing an ideological and cultural agenda for the Fascist Party that would rely greatly on his own philosophical views. Following publication of his 1925 “Manifesto of Fascist Intellectuals,” he became involved with a number of cultural and scholarly initiatives, including the National Fascist Institute of Culture, the National Institute for Germanic Studies, the Italian Institute for the Far and Middle East, and the National Centre for Manzonian Studies. He also edited the Italian Encyclopedia (1932).

Despite these associations, Gentile’s relations with the fascist regime were uneasy at times. Gentile vehemently opposed the signing of the 1929 Lateran Pacts with the Holy See, and many of his works were eventually banned by the Catholic Church. He also opposed the 1940 alliance with Germany and Japan (the Tripartite Pact). However, he supported Mussolini and the Salò Republic until his assassination by communist partisans in April 1944, eleven months before Mussolini’s own assassination.

Gentile’s philosophical views supported the idea that only “concrete acts” can define reality, which on its own is simply an abstract set of unrelated phenomena. Reality is therefore an extension of the individual who sets its terms; it is not something exterior to the individual. Thought in action (“pure acts”) implies the merging of subjects and objects, theory and practice, past and present. Countering materialism, realism, and positivism, Gentile rejected externalized historical dialectics and emphasized the confrontation between subjectivity (thesis), objectivity (antithesis), and philosophy (synthesis). Philosophy cannot be disassociated from life, or vice versa, as its purpose is to guide it through “thought in action.”

In Genesi e Struttura della Società (1943), Gentile argues that the autonomous individual is nothing but a formal abstraction, because in reality, state and individual cannot be separated. His legal-naturalist views characterized the state as an eternal unifying and organic condition capable of overcoming individualized interests, thus providing a philosophical legitimization for fascist corporatism. Through the control of the state, fascism would shape a new antimaterialist and spiritual consciousness with mystical proportions. In spite of this, Gentile also considered himself a liberal, but he believed individual freedom could occur only within the authoritarian state capable of moderating and unifying divergent interests.

Bibliography:

Gentile, Giovanni. Genesis and Structure of Society. Translated by H. S. Harris. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1966.Translation of Genesi e Struttura della Società, 1943.
Opere Complete (Complete Works). 53 vols. Florence: Le Lettere, 1969–1999.
The Theory of Mind as Pure Act: A Philosophy of “Actual Idealism.” Translated by Herbert Wildon Carr. London: Macmillan, 1922. Translation of Teoria generale dello spirito come atto puro, 1916.
Gregor, A. James. Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism. New Brunswick, N.J.:Transaction, 2001.
Moss, M. E. Mussolini’s Fascist Philosopher: Giovanni Gentile Reconsidered. New York: Peter Lang, 2004.

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