Gramsci belonged in a tradition which stemmed from Antonio Labriola, not from Croce and idealist philosophy. This tradition saw Marxism as a philosophy of praxis, a new and original philosophy distinct from both idealism and materialism. Gramsci took his lead from Labriola but also further expanded upon the latter’s approach by seeking the fundamental concepts of the new philosophy in the Theses on Feuerbach. In particular, Gramsci recovered both the concept of praxis and the concept of human nature from the Theses. With the concept of human nature, he expanded even upon Marx’s formulation, by including the individual within it in a way that lays the foundation for modern social sciences based on the notion of the individual, which was, in Gramsci’s case, a socially-rich notion.
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Bellamy Richard ‘Gramsci, Croce and the Italian Political Tradition’ History of Political Thought 1990 11 2 313 337
Bellamy Richard ‘A Crocean Critique of Gramsci on Historicism, Hegemony and Intellectuals’ Journal of Modern Italian Studies 2001 6 2 209 229
Bergami Giancarlo Il giovane Gramsci e il marxismo: 1911–1918 1977 Milan Feltrinelli
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Francioni Gianni ‘L’Impaginazione dei “Quaderni” e le Note su Labriola’ Belfagor 1992 47 5 607 615
Frosini Fabio Gramsci e la Filosofia: Saggio sui Quaderni del Carcere 2003 Rome Carocci
Frosini Fabio Frosini Fabio & Liguori Guido ‘Filosofia della praxis’ Le Parole di Gramsci: per un Lessico dei Quaderni del Carcere 2004 Rome Carocci
Frosini Fabio Giasi Francesco ‘Il Neoidealismo Italiano e l’Elaborazione della Filosofia della Praxis’ Gramsci nel Suo Tempo 2008 Rome Carocci
Frosini Fabio ‘Note sul programma di lavoro sugli “intellettuali italiani” alla luce della nuova edizione critica’ Studi Storici 2011 52 4 905 924
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Gramsci Antonio La Questione Meridionale 1974 Rome Editori Riuniti
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Jacobitti Edmund E. Revolutionary Humanism and Historicism in Modern Italy 1981 New Haven Yale University Press
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Kołakowski Leszek Main Currents of Marxism: The Golden Age 1981 Volume 2 Oxford Oxford University Press
Labriola Antonio Scritti filosofi e politici 1973 Turin Einaudi
Liguori Guido Gramsci conteso: storia di un dibattito, 1922–1996 1996 Rome Editori Riuniti
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Mastroianni Giovanni ‘Per una Rilettura dei Quaderni del Carcere di Antonio Gramsci’ Belfagor 1991 46 5 485 509
Paggi Leonardo Antonio Gramsci e il moderno principe 1970 Rome Editori Riuniti
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Vacca Giuseppe D’Orsi Angelo ‘Dall’ “egemonia del proletariato” all’ “egemonia civile”. Il concetto di egemonia negli scritti di Gramsci fra il 1926 e il 1935’ Egemonie 2008 Naples Libreria Dante & Descartes
Zangheri Renato Baratta Giorgio & Liguori Guido ‘Dal materialismo storico alla filosofia della prassi’ Gramsci da un secolo all’altro 1999 Rome Editori Riuniti
Burgio 2012, pp. 17–25.
Schirru 2010, pp. 111–19.
Burgio 2012, pp. 38–9.
Davidson 1977, pp. 94, 106.
Liguori 1996, pp. 48–50.
Caserta 1984, pp. 204, 211.
Bellamy 1990, p. 313; Bellamy 2001, p. 211.
Garin 2008, pp. 89–90.
Jacobitti 1981, pp. 70–3, 88–9.
Schechter 1990, pp. 51–2.
Bergami 1977, pp. 100–5.
Urbinati 1998, p. 383.
Kołakowski 1981, pp. 175–6.
Garin 1983, p. 160.
Kołakowski 1981, p. 192.
Bravo 2007, pp. 111–12.
Jacobitti 1975, pp. 305, 308; Jacobitti 1981, pp. 62, 69.
Tuozzolo 2008, p. 11.
Caserta 1983, pp. 141, 146.
Jacobitti 1980, pp. 72–4; Jacobitti 1981, pp. 88–9.
Davidson 1977, pp. 80, 105.
Catone 1994, p. 248. It is the third paragraph of Del Materialismo Storico, which appeared in the 5 January 1918 issue of Il Grido del Popolo; Paggi 1970, p. 18.
Catone 1994, p. 250. It has further been suggested that until the Russian Revolution Gramsci had no concern with theory and orthodoxy and not even a real interest in Marx’s thought. See Rapone 2011.
Garin 1983, p. 160; Catone 1994, pp. 252–4.
Bidussa 1988, pp. 232–9.
Bidussa 2008, pp. 299–309.
Catone 1994, p. 254.
Paggi 1984, pp. 427–9, 432–6.
Bidussa 1988, pp. 243–4; Catone 1994, pp. 254–6.
Gramsci 1974, pp. 149–50.
Izzo 2008, pp. 553, 566.
Vacca 2008, pp. 92, 99.
Frosini 2003, p. 51. The topic of intellectuals had an especially important role in Gramsci’s early prison work. Three strands can be identified as driving Gramsci’s effective work in prison through to 1930. They are: first, ‘Americanism and Fordism’; second, the ‘Theory of History and Historiography’, which refers both to a work by Croce with this name and, more generally, to the philosophy or theory of history; third, the theory of intellectuals and the history of Italian intellectuals. At this early stage the theory of intellectuals acted as an overarching ‘framework’ for the rest of Gramsci’s work. Frosini 2011, pp. 911–12.
Frosini 2003, pp. 30, 59–60. Until then, despite the expansion in the topics that he wrote on, the overarching topic of intellectuals continued to act as leitmotiv or framework through Notebooks 1, 3 and 5. Francioni 1984, pp. 70–6.
Q3§31, Gramsci 1996, p. 30, my emphasis.
Q4§3, Gramsci 1996, p. 140, my emphases.
Q16§9, Gramsci 1977, p. 1855. This echoes Labriola’s statement that historical materialism carries within itself the ‘conditions and manners’, that is the seeds, ‘of its own philosophy’, in Discorrendo di socialismo e filosofia, Labriola 1973, p. 679.
Frosini 2003, p. 69.
Q8§235, Gramsci 2007, p. 378.
Q10i§11, Gramsci 1977, p. 1232. This is a single-draft note, first written down by Gramsci in Notebook 10 and in this notebook alone. The first reference to an Anti-Croce is probably in Q8§235, which is redrafted into Notebook 11.
Q10i§11, Gramsci 1977, p. 1233.
Q10i§11, Gramsci 1977, p. 1234.
Q11§1, Gramsci 1977, pp. 1366–8. Here Gramsci discusses an episode reported by Croce regarding Labriola’s views on education. Allegedly, Labriola is said to have suggested that underdeveloped peoples should be initially enslaved. Gramsci rejected this view on several grounds, criticising Labriola for his mechanistic and undialectical conception.
Mastroianni 1991, pp. 497–8.
Kanoussi 2010, pp. 43, 58.
Q11§70, Gramsci 1977, pp. 1508–9, my emphasis.
Haug 2000, pp. 4–7, 10.
Zangheri 1999, pp. 160–2.
Burgio 2012, pp. 46–7.
Haug 2001, pp. 70–2; Dainotto 2009, pp. 51–3, 58.
Q4§11, Gramsci 1996, pp. 152–3.
Q4§11, Gramsci 1996, p. 153.
Q4§32, Gramsci 1996, pp. 172–3.
Q4§37, Gramsci 1996, p. 176.
Q4§37, Gramsci 1996, pp. 176–7, my emphases. Translation modified to conform more closely to Italian original.
Croce 2007, p. 50.
Frosini 2008, pp. 745–6.
Frosini 2004, p. 99.
Haug 2000, pp. 1, 13, n. 7.
Frosini 2004, pp. 97–9.
Q7§35, Gramsci 2007, p. 187.
Q8§198, Gramsci 2007, p. 348. Croce referred to Labriola’s insight that Marxism was a philosophy of praxis in a note in his Historical Materialism and Marxist Economics. Gramsci refers to this work by Croce rather than to Labriola directly. Labriola had referred to the ‘philosophy of praxis’ as the ‘marrow’ or the heart of historical materialism, in his Discorrendo di socialismo e di filosofia, Labriola 1973, p. 702.
Q8§220, Gramsci 2007, p. 369.
Cohen 2000, pp. xvii, xxiii.
Q4§45, Gramsci 1996, p. 195.
Q7§35, Gramsci 2007, p. 186, my emphasis.
Q7§38, Gramsci 2007, pp. 188–9.
Q10i§Introduction, Gramsci 1977, p. 1209, my emphasis.
Q10ii§13, Gramsci 1977, p. 1250, my emphasis.
Cf. Bowles and Gintis 2006.
Fattorini 1987, p. 90.
Q10ii§48ii, Gramsci 1977, p. 1338, my emphases.
Q10ii§54, Gramsci 1977, pp. 1344–5, my emphasis.
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Gramsci belonged in a tradition which stemmed from Antonio Labriola, not from Croce and idealist philosophy. This tradition saw Marxism as a philosophy of praxis, a new and original philosophy distinct from both idealism and materialism. Gramsci took his lead from Labriola but also further expanded upon the latter’s approach by seeking the fundamental concepts of the new philosophy in the Theses on Feuerbach. In particular, Gramsci recovered both the concept of praxis and the concept of human nature from the Theses. With the concept of human nature, he expanded even upon Marx’s formulation, by including the individual within it in a way that lays the foundation for modern social sciences based on the notion of the individual, which was, in Gramsci’s case, a socially-rich notion.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 546 | 77 | 5 |
Full Text Views | 222 | 3 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 76 | 8 | 0 |