Biography of Benedetto Croce

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25 February 1866
November 20, 1952
Benedetto Croce was born in Pescasseroli, in the province of L'Aquila, on 25 February 1866. Writer, philosopher, historian and politician, living in a wealthy family and very conservative who decides to do this form at a religious College. In 1883, at the age of seventeen assists in what will turn out to be the most traumatic event of his life. During a trip to the island of Ischia, victim and witness one of the most difficult moments in the history of the island: on the night of July 28, at 21:30, about ninety seconds an earthquake causes loss of life to 2,313 people. They include Benedict's parents, Pasquale and Luisa Sipari, and his sister Maria. Overwhelmed by rubble but survived this tragic event, Cross moved to Rome in the home of his uncle, the Senator Silvio Spaventa.
In his new place has a chance to meet important intellectuals and politicians with whom you form and compare; among them is also the Italian philosopher Antonio Labriola, which will follow the lessons of moral philosophy in Rome and with which often will stay in touch. Entered the Faculty of law at the University of Naples, in 1886 studies and leaves, Cross, buy the House in which he had lived the philosopher Giambattista Vico. After visiting the major European Nations, Germany, France and Spain, traveling in England, turns his attention prior to the story, through the works of Giosuè Carducci and Francesco De Sanctis, and subsequently to the theories developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Hegel; from the latter Cross echoes the rationalistic character and dialectic in the study of knowledge. According to Benedetto Croce, Hegel is right in saying that the philosophical thought is a universal concept concrete and not intuition or feeling; It did however wrong when he sees reality as the product of opposites that synthesize. Cross, in fact, points out that there are four distinct, imagination, intellect, economic activity and moral activity which do not synthesize as they are not opposites.
These distinct or categories, are created by two activities of the spirit, the theoretical and practical knowledge or volitional or depending on whether they're heading toward the particular or universal. In 1903 publishes the magazine titled "Criticism". This, first published at his own expense, is produced in collaboration with Giovanni Gentile and will last, with its four series, for forty-one years. Benedetto Croce enters the world of politics in 1910: in that year he was appointed Senator for wealth. After publishing works like "the literature of the new Italy" and "culture and moral life," in which they collected biographies and interventions are in the magazine "La Critica" he, between 1920 and 1921, holds the post of Minister of education in the fifth Government led by Giovanni Giolitti. On May 1, 1925 publishes the "Manifesto of the fascist intellectuals"; This, as opposed to the "Manifesto of the fascist intellectuals" by Giovanni Gentile, adhere to several prominent figures in the field of literature and Mathematics including Eugenio Montale, Aldo Palazzeschi, Leonida Tonelli, Ernesto and Mario Pascal, Vito Volterra and Francesco Severi. After criticizing the content of the Lateran Treaty, signed between Church and state the February 11, 1929, and having joined briefly at fascist National Alliance movement, tails leave politics in 1930 in disagreeing with the actions of repression of freedom committed by Mussolini. In 1942 publishes the work entitled "why we cannot tell us Christians," a brief philosophical essay that argues that Christianity "was the biggest revolution that mankind has ever accomplished," which has given men a series of values operating in the center of the soul, in the moral conscience.
With the fall of the regime, in 1943, the cross falls within the Italian political scene. Become leader of the Liberal Party in 1944 processes the theory about fascism, which is classified as a parenthesis in the history of Italy, and becomes Minister without portfolio, is the second Government led by Pietro Badoglio who the second Government led by Ivanoe Bonomi. After voting in favor of the monarchy in the referendum of June 2, 1946, is elected from among the members of the constituent Assembly. Here, through a speech became famous, is opposed to the signing of the peace treaty as an act deemed unseemly for the fledgling Italian Republic. After refusing the offices of provisional President of the Republic and, probably, that of Senator for life. In 1946 he founded in Naples in palazzo Filomarino, the Italian Institute for historical studies. In the Statute of the Institute can be read as either born with the intent to initiate young people to "deepen substantial history in its dealings with the philosophical Sciences of logic, ethics, law, economics and politics, art and religion, which Sun define and demonstrate those humans ideals and purposes and values, of which the historian is called upon to understand and tell the story." In 1949 is struck by a stroke that causes a near-paralysis. Benedetto Croce dies in the armchair of his library, on November 20, 1952, at the age of eighty years.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.