Giovanni Gentile

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gentile as director of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa

Giovanni Gentile (born May 29, 1875 in Castelvetrano , Trapani province , Sicily , † April 15, 1944 in Florence ) was an Italian philosopher , cultural manager and politician. In the public consciousness, especially in Italy, Gentile is seen as one of the main representatives of the new idealism, but also as the intellectual figurehead of fascism in Italy .

Life

Giovanni Gentile - coming from a middle-class background - studied philosophy at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa . He was then a high school teacher in Campobasso and Naples . In 1906 Gentile was appointed professor of the history of philosophy at the University of Palermo . In 1914 he moved to the University of Pisa ; In 1917 he received a call to the La Sapienza University in Rome. From 1928 to 1932 he was acting director, then until 1943 director of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa . From 1934 to 1944 he was also Vice President of the Luigi Bocconi University of Economics in Milan.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Gentile, together with Benedetto Croce, pioneered an intellectual reorientation of Italian cultural life, which took place in engagement with the positivism and naturalism of the 19th century, with scientific culture and efforts to expand education. His thinking, which found its expression in the magazine La Critica , which has been published since 1903 , was characterized by a mixture of conservative-bourgeois elitism, nationalism and a radical rejection of traditional religion. His philosophy, " actualism ", was initially completely apolitical. It is a matter of a conceptual structure that, using a terminology borrowed from Hegel's idealism, gives priority to an act freed from all rules and limits. According to Gentile's conception, all appearances, all thoughts, all actions are ideally combined in a “pure act” ( atto puro ), which is an expression of the highest morality . The apolitical character of his philosophy changed with the beginning of the First World War . Nation and state became the focus of his reflections and publications. Gentile gradually identified the nation state and later the fascist state, ultimately the leader of this state, with the atto puro , who knows everything and always acts morally.

After Benito Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister on October 31, 1922, Gentile became Minister of Education in Mussolini's first cabinet and a few days later also Senator of the Kingdom . He carried out the school and university reform named after him ( riforma Gentile ) and resigned shortly after Matteotti's murder on July 1, 1924.

Giovanni Gentile is the author of the " Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals to the Intellectuals of All Nations ", which was publicly supported by around 250 Italian intellectuals and appeared on April 21, 1925 in all Italian newspapers. Fascism arose "out of the trenches", it says in the place where Benito Mussolini "gathered a bunch of men" in 1919. Fascism is "the spirit of progress and the drive for all national forces", it is directed against the "old democratic liberalism". The freedom of the press has been abolished because "a particular press exposes the nation to the danger of plunging into the greatest disorder". The fascist state is committed to the "common good of the nation", it stands above any particular interests and wants to create "the Italians" anew. The manifesto speaks explicitly of the "religious character of fascism".

Gentile remained loyal to fascism until his violent death in 1944. From 1925 to 1929 he was a member of the Fascist Grand Council , from 1925 to 1937 he headed the National Fascist Cultural Institute ( Istituto Nazionale Fascista di Cultura ) and in 1943 became President of the Royal Academy of Italy ( Reale Accademia d'Italia ).

On April 15, 1944, he died as a result of an assassination attempt after members of the Italian resistance group GAP had fired several shots at him.

Positions

Gentile tried to put his ideas of the “ethical state” ( stato etico ) into practice under fascism. Initially, he enjoyed great success, especially because of his school reform, and was hailed as the most important intellectual of fascism. That changed in the second half of the 1920s, when his school reform was attacked because of its elitism and Mussolini came closer to the Catholic Church ( Concordat ), which could not be reconciled with Gentile's ideas of the relationship between religion and state. Gentile remained an important intellectual figure of fascism until the 1940s. But his intellectual influence waned. In 1944 he was murdered, probably by communist partisans. The exact circumstances of the attack are still unclear.

In the philosophical and historical discussion during Gentile's lifetime and also after Gentile's death, assessments diverge widely. He is referred to as both a Hegelian and an idealist and a radical, amoral actionist. Critics regard his philosophy as the philosophy of fascism, which found its expression in the books Origini e dottrina del fascismo (1929, ³1934) and Genesi e struttura della società (posthumous, 1946); others think that actualism can also justify communism. His followers have always denied any connection between philosophy and Gentile political action.

Gentile plays a role in Italy to this day, as he had a large number of influential students and is still upheld by right-wing extremist parties.

Fonts

  • The actual idealism . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1931.
  • Basics of fascism . Authorized translation by Dr. Eugen Haas of the work "Origini e dottrina del Fascismo". Petrarca House Cologne 1936.
  • Philosophy and pedagogy , taken care of by Kurt Gerhard Fischer with the assistance of Michele Borrelli. Schöningh, Paderborn 1970.
  • Opere complete , about 60 volumes. Firenze since 1925.
  • Opere filosofiche , anthology ed. by Eugenio Garin. Garzanti, Milano 1991.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (Ital. Manifesto degli intellettuali italiani fascisti agli intellettuali di tutte le nazioni ), translated by Ernst Nolte , in: Nolte, Ernst (1972). Theories of Fascism, p. 112 ff. ISBN 978-3-462-00607-0 .
  2. ↑ Francesca Cavarocchi: April 1944: l'uccisione di Giovanni Gentile. In: storiadifirenze.org. Retrieved February 10, 2020 (Italian).

Web links

Commons : Giovanni Gentile  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Gentile, Giovanni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian philosopher, cultural manager and politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Castelvetrano
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1944
Place of death Florence