Giovanni Gentile

Giovanni Gentile (Italian: [dʒoˈvanni dʒenˈtiːle]; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian philosopher, fascist politician, and pedagogue.

Giovanni Gentile
Gentile, 1930s
President of the Royal Academy of Italy
In office
25 July 1943  15 April 1944
MonarchVictor Emmanuel III
Preceded byLuigi Federzoni
Succeeded byGiotto Dainelli Dolfi
Minister of Public Education
In office
31 October 1922  1 July 1924
Prime MinisterBenito Mussolini
Preceded byAntonino Anile
Succeeded byAlessandro Casati
Member of the Senate of the Kingdom
In office
5 November 1922  5 August 1943
Appointed byVictor Emmanuel III
Personal details
Born(1875-05-30)30 May 1875
Castelvetrano, Kingdom of Italy
Died15 April 1944(1944-04-15) (aged 68)
Florence, RSI
Resting placeSanta Croce,
Florence, Italy
Political partyNational Fascist Party
(1923–1943)
Height1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Spouse
Erminia Nudi
(m. 1901)
Children6, including Federico Gentile
Alma materScuola Normale Superiore
University of Florence
ProfessionPhilosopher, politician, pedagogue
Signature

Philosophy career
Notable work
  • Gentile Reform
  • The Doctrine of Fascism
  • Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolNeo-Hegelianism
Main interests
Metaphysics, dialectics, pedagogy
Notable ideas
Actual idealism, fascism, immanentism (method of immanence)

He, alongside Benedetto Croce, was one of the major exponents of Italian idealism in Italian philosophy, and also devised his own system of thought, which he called "actual idealism" or "actualism", which has been described as "the subjective extreme of the idealist tradition".

Described by himself and by Benito Mussolini as the "philosopher of fascism", he was influential in providing an intellectual foundation for Italian fascism, notably through writing the 1925 Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals, and part of the 1932 "The Doctrine of Fascism" with Mussolini. As Minister for Public Education, he introduced in 1923 the so-called Gentile Reform, which would last in some capacity until 1962. He also helped found the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia with Giovanni Treccani, and was its first editor.

Though his political influence waned as Mussolini sought the alliance of the Catholic Church in the late 1920s, which conflicted with Gentile's secularism, he remained a faithful Fascist, even after the 1943 armistice with the Allies, and followed Mussolini into the Italian Social Republic. He was eventually assassinated in 1944 by partisans of the Italian resistance.

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