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Benedetto Croce (credit: H. Roger-Viollet)
Benedetto Croce (credit: H. Roger-Viollet)
For more information on Benedetto Croce, visit Britannica.com.
Benedetto Croce
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Benedetto Croce |
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| Biography: Benedetto Croce |
The Italian philosopher, critic, and educator Benedetto Croce (1866-1952) dominated Italian intellectual life in the first half of the 20th century. His many critical and philosophical writings brought Italian letters well into the mainstream of European thought.
Born to a prosperous middle-class family, at the age of 9 Benedetto Croce began a rigorous Catholic education in Naples. When his parents and sister were killed in an earthquake in 1883, Croce went to Rome. While he never completed his law degree at the University of Rome, he reacted enthusiastically to the lectures on moral philosophy by Professor Antonio Labriola. Returning to Naples in 1886, Croce began a period of dedicated research, enriched by journeys to Spain, England, Germany, and France. Although his early works were largely historical, Croce transcended Positivistic scholarship and soon began inquiry into the nature of art and history and their relationship. He pursued this path relentlessly after his close study of G. W. F. Hegel and Giambattista Vico. With Labriola's encouragement, Croce briefly (1895-1899) cultivated Marxism but refuted this doctrine in Historical Materialism and Marxist Economics (1900).
A long and fruitful collaboration with the philosopher Giovanni Gentile began in 1896. Working with Gentile, Croce edited Classics of World Philosophy, Writers of Italy, and The Library of Modern Culture. In 1903 Croce founded the bimonthly La critica, an international cultural review. For his contributions to Italian letters, in 1910 Croce was made a life member of the Italian Senate. Later, as minister of education (1920-1921), he conceived educational reforms implemented by Gentile, who subsequently occupied that office.
Croce's opposition to fascism, however, severed his association with Gentile. Through his "Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals" (1925), his denunciation of the Lateran Pact (1929), and his open criticism of Mussolini, Croce became the symbol of Italian intellectual freedom. After the fall of fascist Italy, he was a liaison between the Allies and the Italian monarchy but declined public office. In 1947 Croce established the Italian Institute for Historical Studies, to which he donated a large part of his house and extensive library.
His Thought
The essence of Croce's thought may be found in his four-part Filosofia dello spirito (1902-1917; Philosophy of the Spirit), amplified and clarified in many subsequent writings. For Croce, philosophy is the science of the mind, or spirit, wherein all reality resides. The mind's activity takes two distinct, interrelated but not opposite forms, the theoretical and the practical (or cognition and volition). The former perceives and understands reality, the latter creates and changes it. Within the sphere of theory, Croce distinguishes between intuition and logical thought. Similarly, in the realm of the practical, he separates the particular (utilitarian or economic) from the universal (ethical). These four interrelated divisions, none of which has primacy over the others, give rise to man's spiritual activities, which Croce treats in the four volumes of the Filosofia: Aesthetics, Logic, Philosophy of Conduct (Economics and Ethics), and Theory and History of Historiography.
In Aesthetics Croce declared that art is intuition. Realizing that intuition requires communication through language, he later spoke of "lyrical intuition" as creatively expressed impression. Still pursuing the theme in La poesia (1936), Croce distinguished between poetry ("achieved expression") and literature (which bears an external resemblance to poetry but fulfills another function).
As spokesman for an antimystical and antiutopian humanism which maintains that the goal of philosophy is an understanding of the course of human events, Croce has been criticized for not accepting an all-embracing belief, such as Catholicism or communism. He held, however, that there exists no final system or any eternally valid philosophy. Instead, Croce espoused "Historicism," a term by which he characterized the inherently evolutionary nature of his thought.
Further Reading
In general, the most reliable translations of Croce's work are by Arthur Livingston and R. G. Collingwood. For a capsule portrait of Croce see Cecil J. S. Sprigge, Benedetto Croce: Man and Thinker (1952). A more complete study is Gian N. G. Orsini, Benedetto Croce: Philosopher of Art and Literary Critic (1961). There is a chapter on Croce in William Kurtz Wimsatt, Jr., and Cleanth Brooks, Literary Criticism: A Short History (1957). Henry Stuart Hughes, Consciousness and Society: The Reorientation of European Social Thought, 1890-1930 (1958), includes a discussion of Croce.
Additional Sources
Caserta, Ernesto G., Studi crociani negli Stati Uniti: bibliografia critica (1964-1984), Napoli: Loffredo, 1988.
Croce, Benedetto, Carteggio, s.l.: Bibliopolis, 1976.
Ocone, Corrado, Bibliografia ragionata degli scritti su Benedetto Croce, Napoli: Edizioni scientifiche italiane, 1993.
| Philosophy Dictionary: Benedetto Croce |
Croce, Benedetto (1866-1952) Italian philosopher and historian. Born in the Abruzzi, Croce studied in Rome from 1883(when his parents were killed in an earthquake) until 1886, when he took up residence in Naples, where he lived the rest of his life. In 1903 he founded the journal La Critica, to which he contributed extensively. After the First World War, Croce became involved in Italian public life, firstly as a senator, and then after 1925 as a leading intellectual opponent of fascism. His opposition was expressed largely in historical and aesthetic writing in the period. In 1944, at the end of the fascist years, he served briefly as a cabinet minister.
Croce's philosophy showed a retreat from an early realism towards a Hegelian preoccupation with the nature of spirit, as revealed in historical and artistic activity. His aesthetics is centrally concerned with the way in which ‘intuition’ as a non-cognitive and emotional state nevertheless generates genuine cognition or understanding. This understanding is the point of art, which is therefore sharply separated from mere amusement or instruction (a doctrine which greatly influenced Collingwood). Logic balances aesthetics by studying concepts rather than intuitions. These stand to each other in a dialectical relationship reminiscent of Kant, but Croce does not allow that concepts can be the building-blocks of a true, Kantian science. Truth is not found in science, which Croce regards in an instrumentalist spirit, and still less in the delusions of metaphysics and religion, but only in historical judgements. Like Hegel and Gentile, Croce identifies philosophy with the historical study of the development of concepts. In ethics Croce kept a sensitive distance from the dangerous Hegelian notion of the nation-state as the organic unity responsible for the development of the spirit, instead finding the highest realization of understanding in the self-conscious, free exercise of historical enquiry. His philosophy has been titled the ‘Philosophy of Spirit’. Its best-known expressions are Estetica (1902, trs. as The Aesthetic as the Science of Expression and the Linguistic in General, 1992), Logica (1905, trs. as Logic as the Science of the Pure Concept, 1917), Filosofia della pratica (1909, trs. as Philosophy of the Practical, 1967), and Teoria e stòria della storiografia (1917, trs. as Theory and History of Historiography, 1921).
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Benedetto Croce |
Croce, Benedetto (bānādĕt'tō krô'chā), 1866-1952, Italian philosopher, historian, and critic. He lived mostly in Naples, devoting himself to studying and writing. He founded and edited (1903-44) Critica, a review of literature, history, and philosophy, which in 1944 became Quaderni della critica. Croce was made a senator in 1910 and was minister of education (1920-21). A staunch opponent of Fascism, he lived in retirement until 1943, when he became a leader of the Liberal party. Croce's system of philosophy is related to the idealistic school in that spirit, monistic in manifestation, constitutes the only reality. In his works on aesthetics Croce held that an artist's mental images, communicated by physical artifacts, constitute works of art. Viewing history as an interpretation of the past, he argued that history is not only a form of thought but the culmination of philosophy. The general title of the work presenting his system is Philosophy of the Spirit (1902-17; tr. 1909-21), which is divided into four parts, Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic, Logic as the Science of Pure Concept, Philosophy of the Practical, and History: Its Theory and Practice. Among his other works are A History of Italy, 1871-1915 (1927; tr. 1929) and History as the Story of Liberty (1938; tr. 1941).
Bibliography
See his essays My Philosophy (tr. 1949); M. E. Moss, Benedetto Croce Reconsidered (1987); D. Roberts, Benedetto Croce and the Uses of Historicism (1987).
| Quotes By: Benedetto Croce |
Quotes:
"Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind exists in torture."
| Wikipedia: Benedetto Croce |
| Western Philosophy 20th-century philosophy |
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| Full name | Benedetto Croce |
| Born | February 25, 1866 (Pescasseroli, Italy) |
| Died | November 20, 1952 (aged 86) Naples, Italy |
| School/tradition | Hegelianism, Idealism, Liberalism |
| Main interests | History, Aesthetics, Politics |
| Notable ideas | art is expression |
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Benedetto Croce (Italian pronunciation: [beneˈdetto ˈkroːtʃe]; February 25, 1866 – November 20, 1952) was an Italian critic, idealist philosopher, and occasionally also a politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodolgy of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade. His influence on Antonio Gramsci is quite notable.
Contents |
Biography
Croce was born in Pescasseroli in the Abruzzo region of Italy. He came from an influential and wealthy family, and was raised in a very strict Catholic environment. Around the age of 16, he turned away from Catholicism and developed a personal view of spiritual life, in which religion cannot be anything but an historical insitution where the creative strength of mankind can be expressed. He kept this position for the rest of his life. In 1883, an earthquake hit the village of Casamicciola, Ischia, where he was on holiday with his family, destroying the home they lived in. His mother, father, and only sister were all killed, while he was buried for a very long time and barely survived. After the incident he inherited his family's fortune and much like Schopenhauer before him was able to live the rest of his life in relative leisure, enabling him to devote a great deal of time to philosophy as an independent intellectual writing from his palazzo in Naples. (Ryn, 2000:xi[1]). As his fame increased, many pushed him, against his wishes, to go into politics. He was made Minister of Public Education for a year, and later, in 1910, moved to the Italian Senate, a lifelong position. (Ryn, 2000:xi[1]). He was an open critic of Italy's participation in World War I, feeling that it was a suicidal trade war. Though this made him initially unpopular, his reputation was restored after the war and he became a well-loved public figure. He was also instrumental in the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III's move to the Palazzo Reale in 1923.
When the government that made him Minister of Public Education was ousted from power by Mussolini, he was replaced by Giovanni Gentile as the new Minister, with whom Croce had earlier cooperated in philosophical polemic against positivism. Though Benedetto Croce initially supported Benito Mussolini's Fascist government (1922-24)[2], eventually he openly opposed the Fascist Party[3], while he also distanced himself from his former philosophical partner, Gentile. Croce was seriously threatened by Mussolini's regime, and his home and library was raided by the fascist troopers. He managed to stay outside prison thanks to his status, but he was under surveillance and his academic work was kept in obscurity by the government, to the extent that no mainstream newspaper or academic publication ever referred to him. In 1944, when democracy was restored, Croce was again made minister of the new government. (Ryn, 2000:xi-xii[1]). He later left the government and remained president of the Liberal Party until 1947. (Ryn, 2000:xii[1]).
His most interesting philosophical ideas are divided into three works: Aesthetic (1902), Logic (1908), and Philosophy of the practical (1908), but his complete work is spread over 80 books and 40 years worth of publications in his own bimonthly literary magazine, La Critica. (Ryn, 2000:xi[1])
The Philosophy of Spirit
Heavily influenced by Hegel and other German Idealists, such as Fichte, Croce produced what was called, by him, the Philosophy of Spirit. His preferred designations were "Absolute Idealism" or "Absolute Historicism". Croce's work can be seen as a second attempt (contra Kant) to resolve the problems and conflicts between empiricism and rationalism (or transcendentalism and sensationalism, respectively). He calls his way immanentism, and concentrates on the lived human experience, as it happens in specific places and times. Since the root of reality is this immanent existence in concrete experience, Croce places aesthetics at the foundation of his philosophy.
The Domains of Mind
Croce's methodological approach to philosophy is expressed in his divisions of the spirit, or mind. He divides mental activity first into the theoretical, and then the practical. The theoretical division splits between aesthetic and logic. This theoretical aesthetic includes most importantly: intuitions and history. The logical includes concepts and relations. Practical spirit is concerned with economics and ethics. Economics is here to be understood as an exhaustive term for all utilitarian matters.
Each of these divisions have an underlying structure that colors, or dictates, the sort of thinking that goes on within them. The aesthetic is driven by beauty, logic is subject to truth, economics is concerned with what is useful, and the moral, or ethics, is bound to the good. This schema is descriptive in that it attempts to elucidate the logic of human thought; however, it is prescriptive as well, in that these ideas form the basis for epistemological claims and confidence.
History
Croce also held great esteem for Vico, and shared his view that history should be written by philosophers. Croce's On History sets forth the view of history as "philosophy in motion", that there is no greater "cosmic design" or ultimate plan in history, and that the "science of history" was a farce.
Beauty
Croce's work Breviario di estetica (The Essence of Aesthetic) appears in the form of four lessons (quattro lezioni), as he was asked to write and deliver them at the inauguration of Rice University in 1912. He declined the invitation to attend the event; however, he wrote the lessons and submitted them for translation, so that they could be read in his absence. In this brief, but dense, work, Croce sets forth his theory of art. He claimed that art is more important than science or metaphysics, since only the former edifies us. He felt that all we know can be reduced to logical and imaginative knowledge. Art springs from the latter, making it at its heart, pure imagery. All thought is based in part on this, and it precedes all other thought. The task of an artist is then to put forth the perfect image that they can produce for their viewer, since this is what beauty fundamentally is - the formation of inward, mental images in their ideal state. Our intuition is the basis of forming these concepts within us. This theory was later heavily debated by such contemporary Italian thinkers as Umberto Eco, who locates the aesthetic within a semiotic construction.[4]
Contributions to liberal political theory
Croce's liberalism is unique when compared to the standard Angloamerican definitions of liberal politics: while Croce theorises that the individual is the centre of society, he rejects social atomism, and while Croce accepts limited government, he refuses that the government should have fixed legitimate powers. Croce disagrees with John Locke in the nature of liberty, in the sense that he believes that liberty is not a natural right but an earned right that arises out of continuing historical struggle for its maintenance. Croce defined civilization as the "continual vigilance" against barbarism, and liberty fit into his ideal for civilization as it allows one to experience the full potential of life. Croce also rejects egalitarianism as absurd. In short, his variety of liberalism is aristocratic, as he views society being led by the few who can create the goodness of truth, civilization, and beauty, with the great mass of citizens simply benefiting from them but unable to fully comprehend their creations. (Ryn, 2000:xii[1]).
Selected quotations
- All history is contemporary.
Selected bibliography
- Materialismo storico ed economia marxistica (1900)
- L'Estetica come scienza dell'espressione e linguistica generale (1902), commonly referred to as Aesthetic in English.
- Logica come scienza del concetto puro (1909)
- Breviario di estetica (1912)
- Saggio sul Hegel (1912)
- Teoria e storia della storiografia (1916)
- Racconto degli racconti (first translation into Italian from Neapolitan of Giambattista Basile's Lo cunto de li cunti, 1925)
- "Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals" (1 May 1925 in La Critica)
- Ultimi saggi (1935)
- La poesia (1936)
- La storia come pensiero e come azione (meaning History as thought and as action[1]) (1938), translated in English by Sylvia Sprigge as History as the story of liberty in 1941 in London by George Allen & Unwin and in USA by W.W. Norton. The most recent edited translation based on that of Sprigge is Liberty Fund Inc. in 2000. The 1941 English translation is accessible online through Questia.
- Il carattere della filosofia moderna (1941)
- Filosofia e storiografia (1949)
Further reading
- Parente, Alfredo. Il pensiero politico di Benedetto Croce e il nuovo liberalismo (1944).
- Myra Moss, Benedetto Croce reconsidered,(1987).
- Ernesto Paolozzi, Science and Philosophy in Benedetto Croce, in "Rivista di Studi Italiani", University of Toronto, 2002.
- Janos Keleman, A Paradoxical Truth. Croce's Thesis of Contemporary History, in "Rivista di Studi Italiani, University of Toronto, 2002.
- Giuseppe Gembillo, Croce and the Theorists of Complexity, in "Rivista di Studi Italiani, University of Toronto, 2002.
- Fabio Fernando Rizi, Benedetto Croce and Italian Fascism, University of Toronto Press, 2003.
- Ernesto Paolozzi, Benedetto Croce, Cassitto, Naples, 1998 (tanslated by M. Verdicchio (2008) www.ernestopaolozzi.it)
- Matteo Veronesi, Il critico come artista dall'estetismo agli ermetici. D'Annunzio, Croce, Serra, Luzi e altri, Bologna, Azeta Fastpress, 2006, ISBN 8889982055
See also
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g History as the story of liberty: English translation of Croce's 1938 collection of essays originally in Italian; translation published by Libety Fund Inc. in the USA in 2000 with a foreword by Claes G. Ryn. ISBN 0-86597-268-0 (hardback).
- ^ Denis Mack Smith, “Benedetto Croce: History and Politics”, Journal of Contemporary History Vol 8(1) Jan 1973 pg 47.
- ^ He coined the term onagrocracy (literally "government by braying asses") to describe the style of rule by the Italian fascist movement and its leader Benito Mussolini's type of government. It is a disdainful term for misgovernment, a late and satirical addition to Aristotle's famous three: tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy.
- ^ Umberto Eco, “A Theory of Semiotics" (Indiana University Press. 1976)
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