Giovanni Gentile 1875 – 1944
Giovanni Gentile was an Italian philosopher and the principal theorist of the official idealism of Italian Fascism, which he called actual idealism. After a long collaboration with Benedetto Croce that ended in a public break, he served as minister of public education in Mussolini's first government and carried through a far-reaching reform of Italian schools and universities. He directed the Italian Encyclopedia and wrote its entry on Fascism. His political commitments, which he never repudiated, drew on a philosophical system, set out in The General Theory of Spirit as Pure Act, in which the thinking act is the only ultimate reality.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Italian
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Continental
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Giovanni Gentile:
“The act of thinking is the only ultimate reality.”
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Attributed to Giovanni Gentile:
“Reality is not given but made by the thinking spirit.”
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Attributed to Giovanni Gentile:
“Education is the formation of the act of thought itself.”
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Attributed to Giovanni Gentile:
“Spirit knows no past or future, only the eternal present of action.”
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Attributed to Giovanni Gentile:
“The state is ethical when it expresses the moral will of its people.”