Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce
Member of the Senate of the Republic
In office
8 May 1948 – 20 November 1952
ConstituencyNaples
Member of the Constituent Assembly
In office
25 June 1946 – 31 January 1948
ConstituencyItaly at-large
Minister of Public Education
In office
15 June 1920 – 4 July 1921
Prime MinisterGiovanni Giolitti
Preceded byAndrea Torre
Succeeded byOrso Mario Corbino
Member of the Senate of the Kingdom
In office
26 January 1910 – 24 June 1946
Appointed byVictor Emmanuel III
Personal details
Born(1866-02-25)25 February 1866
Pescasseroli, Italy
Died20 November 1952(1952-11-20) (aged 86)
Naples, Italy
Political partyItalian Liberal Party
(1922–1952)
Spouse
Adele Rossi
(m. 1914; died 1952)
Domestic partner
Angelina Zampanelli
(m. 1893; died 1913)
ChildrenElena, Alda, Silvia, Lidia
Alma materUniversity of Naples
ProfessionHistorian, writer, landowner
Signature

Philosophy career
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolNeo-Hegelianism
Classical liberalism
Historism[1] (storicismo)
Main interests
History, aesthetics, politics
Notable ideas
Liberism
Aesthetic expressivism
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Benedetto Croce, OCI, COSML (Italian: [beneˈdetto ˈkroːtʃe]; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952)[3] was an Italian idealist philosopher,[4] historian,[5] and politician who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography, and aesthetics. A political liberal in most regards, he formulated a distinction between liberalism (as support for civil liberties) and "liberism" (as support for laissez-faire economics and capitalism).[6][7] Croce had considerable influence on other Italian intellectuals, from Marxists to Italian fascists, such as Antonio Gramsci and Giovanni Gentile, respectively.[3]

He had a long career in the Italian Parliament, joining the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy in 1910, serving through Fascism and the Second World War before being elected to the Constituent Assembly as a Liberal. In the 1948 general election he was elected to the new republican Senate and served there until his death. He was a longtime member of the centre-right Italian Liberal Party, serving as its president from 1944 to 1947.

Croce was the president of the worldwide writers' association PEN International from 1949 until 1952. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 16 times.[8] He is also noted for his "major contributions to the rebirth of Italian democracy".[9] He was an elected International Member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.[10][11]

  1. ^ Robin Headlam Wells, Glenn Burgess, Rowland Wymer (eds.), Neo-historicism: Studies in Renaissance Literature, History, and Politics Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2000, p. 3.
  2. ^ Lorenzo Benadusi, Giorgio Caravale, George L. Mosse's Italy: Interpretation, Reception, and Intellectual Heritage, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, p. 17
  3. ^ a b "BIOGRAPHY OF BENEDETTO CROCE – HistoriaPage". Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  4. ^ Koch, Adrienne (30 July 1944). "Croce and the Germans; GERMANY AND EUROPE: A Spiritual Dissension. By Benedetto Croce. Translated and with an Introduction by Vincent Sheean. 83 pp. New York: Random House. $1.25. (Published 1944)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 October 2020. "...distinguished philosopher..."
  5. ^ "Benedetto Croce | Italian philosopher". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  6. ^ "Croce ed Einaudi: un confronto su liberalismo e liberismo in "Croce e Gentile"". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  7. ^ "Croce e il liberalismo in "Croce e Gentile"". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  8. ^ "Nomination Database". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  9. ^ Rizi, Fabio Fernando (9 January 2019). Benedetto Croce and the Birth of the Italian Republic, 1943-1952. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4875-0446-5.
  10. ^ "Benedetto Croce". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 9 February 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  11. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 7 April 2023.