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Antimetaphysics As Analytical Method in Croce's Conception of History

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Antimetaphysics As Analytical Method in Croce's Conception of History _________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses Antimetaphysics as analytical method in Croce's conception of history. Paci, Luca How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Paci, Luca (2004) Antimetaphysics as analytical method in Croce's conception of history.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42480 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ Antimetaphysics as analytical method in Croce’s conception of history Luca Paci University of Wales Swansea Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD September 2004 ProQuest Number: 10801710 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10801710 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 LIBRARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Gino Bedani for his priceless guidance and constant encouragement throughout this project. Also a big thanks to Marta Herling, Croce’s nephew and Director of the Istituto italiano per gli studi storici and to Professor Pio Colonnnello of the University of Cosenza. I am also grateful to my friend John Kinsey for his help and support. Finally I would like to thank my partner and family for standing by me in every possible way. 2 Summary To the best of my knowledge, this is the first full-length study to consider how Croce’s antimetaphysical method shaped his approach to history. Crocean criticism has traditionally tended to focus on the Filosofia dello Spirito as the main source of Croce’s ideas. In reality, Croce’s thought is dispersed in a myriad of articles and marginalia. Without neglecting Croce’s major works on historiography, I have made use of rarely used material: his Epistolario and his Taccuini di lavoro, both published in a limited edition by the Istituto italiano per gli studi storici in Naples. Moreover, I have used La Critica, Croce’s bimonthly journal which ran for some forty years. All this material helped me to reinforce the idea that Croce’s philosophy should be read as a series of reflections on historical narrative and literary criticism instead of as an all- encompassing idealistic system. Narrative, objectivity and method are the main issues discussed by the Italian philosopher. Each chapter opens with a brief historical account of the context within which Croce’s ideas were developed. The introductory chapter provides an overview of the reasons for Croce’s demise in the aftermath of World War Two. Chapter two explores the origins of Croce’s antimetaphysical method from the outset of his long intellectual career. Chapter three analyzes the philosopher’s epistemology of history and its non­ reductionist purpose. The consequences of Croce’s method and its further developments in history and historiography are explored in chapter four, whereas chapter five analyzes the links between history and action and the concept of the contemporaneity of all historiographical explorations. The last section of the chapter is devoted to the potential impact of Croce today within a postmodern climate. After highlighting similarities between some contemporary thinkers (Gadamer in particular) and Croce, I argue that the Italian philosopher still represents a very useful interlocutor for those engaged in the discussion of the nature of history and its present status in the contemporary debate. 3 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 Chapter one: Origins of Croce’s demise in Italian postwar culture 1.1 PROPONENTS OF A ‘PROGRESSIVE’ CULTURE 16 1.2 GRAMSCI’S ATTACK 18 1.3 1955: THE ‘PROGRESSIVE’ ASSAULT 29 1.4 CRITIQUES FROM OTHER DIRECTIONS 45 Chapter two: Establishing an antimetaphysical terrain 2.1 CROCE’S INTELLECTUAL APPRENTICESHIP 53 2.2 HISTORY SUBSUMED 61 2.3 DECONSTRUCTING MARXISM 72 2.4 CROCE VS GENTILE 85 2.5 THE PROGRAMME OF LA CRITICA 100 Chapter three: Epistemology of history 3.1 THE GIOLITTIAN ERA 106 3.2 CROCE’S MODES OF CRITIQUE 114 3.3 THE ROLE OF THE SCIENCES 127 3.4 NARRATION, LOGIC, AND HISTORY 134 Chapter four: Breaking through the ‘system’ 4.1 THE YEARS BETWEEN 1915 AND 1925 146 4.2 METHODOLOGY, METAPHYSICS, AND TRADITION 154 4.3 ETHICO - POLITICAL HISTORY 175 4.4 CROCE’S HISTORIOGRAPHY ( NAPLES, ITALY AND EUROPE) 191 Chapter five: ‘All history is contemporary’ 5.1 FASCISM AND POST-FASCISM 207 5.2 HISTORY AND ACTION: CROCE’S LAST PHASE 221 5.3 CROCE TODAY 236 CONCLUSION 248 Bibliography 256 4 INTRODUCTION Un autore rinasce solamente quando viene inteso nel proprio suo pensiero e con do collocato nel posto che gli spetta nella storia della filosofia, dal quale prende, o riprende a esercitare efficacia nel nuovo pensiero come suo vivo elemento e componente.1 Origins of the research When I started my research on Benedetto Croce I had a number of preconceptions concerning his thought. My idea of the Neapolitan philosopher was very much influenced by my philosophical studies in Pavia where he was generally considered a sort of appendix to Hegelianism with very little to do with contemporary thought. Even Croce’s anti-Fascism and his key role in the promotion of a free culture during one of the country’s most critical periods were hardly mentioned. However, as soon as I began reading Croce’s prose I was surprised by its simplicity and clarity. His prose and its continuous appeal, through examples and images, to everyday life did not match the convoluted style of the abstract idealist thinker he was supposed to be. Moreover, Croce’s long life, far from being dull and cocooned, confined in a golden prison in Naples, was full of dramatic events and displayed a high level of civic engagement in the fate of his country. Theory and practice, thought and action, were inextricably intertwined in Croce. The turning point of my study was the reading of Gianfranco Contini’s La parte di Benedetto Croce nella cultura italiana. Here the celebrated literary critic described Croce as the ‘sommo atleta della cultura’ and complained that in the • • • l postwar period ‘il pensiero di Croce si trovava in tutti i sensi ad essere volgarizzato.’ Contini maintained that ‘il crocianesimo corrente ... era asserzione e applicazione di tesi, quasi verita piovute dal cielo ... affermate fuori e sopra la storia.’,4 whereas in reality Croce’s teaching was firmly rooted in history and ‘essenzialmente metodologico e antimetafisico.’5 Contini blamed the ‘crociani’ for this gross misrepresentation of Croce’s thought, maintaining that ‘il crocianesimo in senso 1 B. Croce, Ilcarattere della filosofia moderna, (Bari: Laterza, 1963), p.59. 2 G. Contini, La parte di Benedetto Croce nella cultura italiana, (Turin: Einaudi, 1989), pp. viii-ix. 3 Ibid., p.3. 4 Ibid., p. 4. 5 Ibid. 5 proprio e quello di chi, spesso con dialettica speciosa o con prematura senilita, appende i suoi nidi e le sue ragnatele al tronco crociano’.6 Contini’s reading of Croce insisted on the fact that the Italian philosopher promoted ‘il valore liberatorio del pensiero, della scienza, del metodo’ in order to overcome ‘un’insopportabile angoscia.’7 To my amazement Contini argued that Croce’s aim was a ‘riforma del metodo positivo, instaurazione di un nuovo positivismo.’8 This was in conflict with the received reading of Croce which saw the philosopher as a fierce anti-positivist with an anti-scientific mindset dictated by his hardcore idealism. Contini argued that Croce on the contrary, was ‘un positivista “nuovo” nella radicale distruzione delle metafisiche e dei miti, e nel desiderio ... di essere funzionale, nel sogno di una filosofia solo speciale e in atto, “filosofia dei fatti particolari’”.9 Contini concluded his brief pamphlet advocating a study which would focus on due elementi della fortuna crociana, oggi ancora minori, non abbastanza visibili, ma soli atti a garantire la continuity d’efficacia, sono da un lato la premessa dell’ “angoscia” come impulso alia tacitazione razionale ... dall’altro la funzionalita e il carattere metodologico della fdosofia, cioe il germe di un nuovo positivismo del quale non si puo dire che Croce abbia promosso Tinstaurazione. 10 There have been numerous publications on the much debated ‘ritomo di Croce’ in the past few years, and many celebrations and commemorative events, but little progress has been made in the destruction of the stereotyped image of a conservative and idealist Croce.11 There have been few books which go against the current, and it is no coincidence that they are all from outside Italy where the image of a conservative Croce is still widely accepted.
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