Antonio Genovesi

Lezioni di commercio , 1769

Antonio Genovesi (born November 1, 1712 in Castiglione , † September 12, 1769 in Naples ) was an Italian philosopher of the Enlightenment .

After receiving the ordination in 1736 Genovesi turned to Naples and four years later was appointed teacher of metaphysics at the university there . From 1743 the first volume of his Disciplinarum Metaphysicarum Elementa appeared , in 1745 he published treatises on logic and natural sciences.

When in 1754 the Florentine merchant Bartolomeo Intieri established the first chair for trade and mechanics (i.e. economic policy) in Europe in Naples, Genovesi became its first holder. His textbook Lezioni di commercio o sia d'economia civile (1765) was the first comprehensive work on the subject of national economy in Italy; Here he developed - based on the wishes of the people - a first detailed demand theory . With his attempt to combine free competition with protectionism, his doctrine broke away from the previously predominant mercantilism . Unlike Fénelon , who was also critical of mercantilism , Genovesi emphasized the importance of labor as a factor of production . His proposal to expropriate the land of religious communities aroused particular opposition .

Genovesi died as a professor of philosophy in Naples in 1769 ; in addition to his epoch-making writings on political economy , he demonstrated his in-depth knowledge of the philosophy of Locke , Leibniz and Hume through his logic ( De arte logica , 1742) and metaphysics and is considered to be for his Logica de 'Giovanetti and Delle scienze metafisiche (1766) as a restorer of philosophy in Italy - against strong opposition from the scholastics . Because of these attacks, his work Universae Christianae Theologiae Elementa could not appear until 1771 (after his death).

Giambattista Vico was one of his teachers ; Pasquale Galluppi was one of his students.

literature

• Romualdo Bobba: Commemorazione di Antonio Genovesi, parole lette il 17 March 1867 dal preside . Benevento 1867.
• Wolfgang Rother : Antonio Genovesi . In: Johannes Rohbeck ,  Wolfgang Rother (ed.):  Outline of the history of philosophy, The philosophy of the 18th century , Vol. 3: Italy . Schwabe, Basel 2011,  ISBN 978-3-7965-2599-5 , pp. 374-390 (bibliography: pp. 429-430).