Hegelians on the Slopes of Vesuvius: A Transnational Study in the Intellectual History of Naples, 1799-1861 Alessandro De Arcangelis, University College London Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University College London, April 2018 I, Alessandro De Arcangelis, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to all the people who supported me in this challenging and exciting journey and contributed, in many ways, to its development and completion. Working with my main supervisor, Prof. Axel Körner, has been a terrific experience and I am deeply grateful for his undefeated enthusiasm, impeccable support, steady encouragement and, above all, for offering me so many opportunities to grow as a researcher. My second supervisor, Prof. Avi Lifschitz, has always been a dedicated mentor, whose point of view has been helping me improve my way of engaging with intellectual history since the very first day of my MA degree in 2013. I genuinely hope that the future may hold many more opportunities for me to work with them. A special mention goes to Dr. Fernanda Gallo: our common passion for Neapolitan Hegelianism has introduced us to a priceless friendship and enabled us to work together on several projects during the last year. Dr. Maurizio Isabella provided me with useful comments that greatly helped my argument to come into focus, as did Prof. Gareth Stedman Jones in 2015 and 2017. I also want to thank Dr. Angus Gowland for his kind, friendly and congenial help in moving forward in my career. My most sincere thanks also go to Melissa Benson, Alys Beverton, Misha Ewen, Matt Griffin, Gareth Hallett Davis, Johannes Hartmann, Shane Horwell, Shiru Lim, Giorgio Lizzul, Maria Christina Marchi, George Newth, Mark Power Smith, Grace Redhead, Harry Stopes and David Tiedemann. Their advice and support helped me come to the end of this journey. Antonio D’Alessio and Julian Scholtes’ friendship has been such a huge source of motivation in the last years and words can barely express how thankful I am to them. I am infinitely grateful to my family for the never-ending encouragement. My late grandfather Alessandro Di Lorenzo, who only saw the beginning of this project, taught me to how to challenge myself and believe in my passions. My mother, grandmother, sister, stepfather and stepsister have acted as constant reminder of the beauty that lies in any intellectual endeavour, as well as the responsibilities that come with it. Their moral and emotional support has been unreal. Lastly, my partner has been the most loyal and caring companion throughout this journey. His patience, understanding and advice always helped me remain confident in this thesis’ significance and in my ability to bring out its full potential. 3 4 Making Italy understand Hegel would mean regenerating the country. I, for myself, believe that should you begin, you will witness elements of a new life, which you were not expecting, emerging along the way. - Pasquale Villari, Lettera a Bertrando Spaventa, 1850 If philosophy is not a mere intellectual exercise driven by vanity, but that true form of human life in which all earlier moments of spirit are epitomised and find their true meaning, it is natural to think that a true people may recognise and acquire true consciousness of itself when looking at its philosophers. Where this acknowledgment is missing, foreign importation is useless; this is because consciousness of oneself is not a commodity, which can be bought, shout it be missing; it is consciousness of our true selves, our true selves. - Bertrando Spaventa, Della nazionalità della filosofia, 1861 Vesuvius, are you a ghost, or the symbols of light, or a fantasy host? In your breast, I carry the form, the heart of the Earth and the weapons of warmth. - Sufjan Stevens, Vesuvius, 2010 5 6 Abstract This thesis examines the reception, circulation and revision of Hegel’s thought, most notably his philosophy of history, in Neapolitan intellectual history during the Risorgimento, approached from a transnational perspective. In particular, attention will focus on five inter- related themes: (i) the complex set of intellectual exchanges and encounters enabling the penetration and popularisation of Hegel’s philosophy in Naples; (ii) the ongoing revision, taking place during the early decades of the nineteenth century, of Giambattista Vico’s historicism via debates that ultimately deployed an image of the Neapolitan thinker as a theorist of historical time, on the one hand, and the proponent of an idealist account of it, on the other; (iii) the amalgamation of a Hegelian notion of absolute historical development and Vichian historicism taking place in the southern capital’s private schools of philosophy, enabling historians to view Neapolitan Hegelianism as the result of a broad transnational encounter, yet closely rooted in local contexts and debates; (iv) the ways in which, in response to ongoing experiences of political change, most notably the 1848 Revolution and the emancipation of the Italian peninsula, Neapolitan Hegelianism was systematically deployed in support of – and in opposition to – different strands of Risorgimento political thought: it came to support, in fact, a form of democratic constitutionalism reminiscent of the Jacobin ideas informing the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799, in direct opposition to moderate Piedmontese liberalism; and (v) the shaping of a transnational cosmopolitan sensitivity among Neapolitan Hegelians, ultimately merging the political ambitions connected with the emancipation and unification of Italy with the negotiation of a vantage point for the country in the intellectual and philosophical lives of modern European nations. 7 8 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 11 I. HEGELIANS ON THE SLOPES OF VESUVIUS ................................................................................... 11 II. BACKGROUND AND EXISTING RESEARCH ..................................................................................... 14 III. A TRANSNATIONAL STUDY IN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY: METHODOLOGY .................................... 32 IV. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS........................................................................................................... 38 V. REIMAGINING NAPLES’ PAST TO RETHINK ITS PRESENT .............................................................. 42 1. CHAPTER ONE – THE MAKING OF NEAPOLITAN HEGELIANS: POLYCENTRIC IDEALISM BETWEEN THE LOCAL AND THE TRANSNATIONAL ....................................................................................... 45 1.1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 45 1.2. FROM GERMANY TO ITALY: THE EXCHANGE THAT DID NOT HAPPEN ......................................... 49 1.3. THE GRAND TOUR OF IDEALISM: FROM GERMANY TO FRANCE .................................................. 62 1.4. THE GRAND TOUR OF IDEALISM: …FROM FRANCE TO NAPLES. A PROBLEM OF METHOD ......... 69 1.5. NEAPOLITAN HEGELIANISM AND A EUROPEAN HISTORY OF IDEAS ............................................ 80 2. CHAPTER TWO - UN INCONTRO MANCATO? GIAMBATTISTA VICO AND GERMAN IDEALISM IN CONTEXT ................................................................................................................................... 85 2.1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 85 2.2. GIAMBATTISTA VICO: DER UNBEKANNTE PHILOSOPH ................................................................. 88 2.3. RE-DISCOVERING VICO IN EUROPE AND FRANCE ......................................................................... 97 2.4. THE ITALIAN CONTEXT: VINCENZO CUOCO AND THE SOUTHERN EXILES .................................. 103 2.5. FROM VICO TO HEGEL: DEBATES AFTER CUOCO ........................................................................ 112 2.6. GIAMBATTISTA VICO IN A TRANSNATIONAL INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF EUROPE ................... 118 3. CHAPTER THREE - EUROPEAN THINKERS AND MAESTRI PRIVATI: GERMAN PHILOSOPHY IN NEAPOLITAN PRIVATE SCHOOLS ............................................................................................... 121 3.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 121 3.2. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION IN THE KINGDOM ................................................................ 126 3.3. FROM RECEPTION TO REVISION: NEAPOLITAN PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN A TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY OF IDEAS............................................................................................................................... 135 3.4. VERUM ESSE IPSUM VERNÜNFTIG: VICO, HEGEL AND A NEW HISTORICISM ............................ 147 3.5. NEAPOLITAN HEGELIANISM BEYOND NATIONAL EXCEPTIONALISM .......................................... 156 4. CHAPTER FOUR - FROM REVOLUTION TO UNIFICATION: NEAPOLITAN HEGELIANISM AND RISORGIMENTO POLITICAL THOUGHT ....................................................................................... 159 4.1. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................