*** Welcome to piglix ***

Benedetto Croce

The Honourable
Benedetto Croce
KOCI, COSML
B.Croce.jpg
Member of the Italian Senate
In office
8 May 1948 – 20 November 1952
Constituency Naples
Member of the Italian Constituent Assembly
In office
25 June 1946 – 31 January 1948
Constituency At-large
Minister of Public Education
In office
15 June 1920 – 4 July 1921
Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti
Preceded by Andrea Torre
Succeeded by Orso Mario Corbino
Member of the Italian Royal Senate
In office
26 January 1910 – 24 June 1946
Monarch Victor Emmanuel III
Personal details
Born (1866-02-25)February 25, 1866
Pescasseroli, Italy
Died November 20, 1952(1952-11-20) (aged 86)
Naples, Italy
Spouse(s) Adele Rossi (m. 1914; d. 1952)
Domestic partner Angelina Zampanelli (m. 1893; her d. 1913)
Children Elena, Alda, Silvia, Lidia
Profession Historian, writer, landowner
Religion None (Christian atheism)
Signature

Philosophy career
Era 20th-century
Region Western philosophy
School Idealism
Liberalism
Historism (storicismo)
Main interests
History, aesthetics, politics
Notable ideas
Liberism
Aesthetic expressivism (art expresses emotions, not ideas)

Benedetto Croce (Italian: [beneˈdetto ˈkroːtʃe]; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian and politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. He was a liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade and had considerable influence on other Italian intellectuals, including both Marxist Antonio Gramsci and fascist Giovanni Gentile.

He was President of PEN International, the worldwide writers' association, from 1949 until 1952. He was nominated for the Nobel prize for literature sixteen times.

Croce was born in Pescasseroli in the Abruzzo region of Italy. His family was influential and wealthy, and he was raised in a very strict Catholic environment. Around the age of 16, he quit Catholicism and developed a personal philosophy of spiritual life, in which religion cannot be anything but an historical institution where the creative strength of mankind can be expressed. He kept this philosophy for the rest of his life.

In 1883, an earthquake occurred in the village of Casamicciola on the island of Ischia near Naples, where he was on holiday with his family, destroying the home they lived in. His mother, father, and only sister were all killed, while he was buried for a long time and barely survived. After the earthquake he inherited his family's fortune and—much like Schopenhauer—was able to live the rest of his life in relative leisure, devoting a great deal of time to philosophy as an independent intellectual writing from his palazzo in Naples. (Ryn, 2000:xi).


...
Wikipedia

...