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Giovanni Gentile Philosophy
Giovanni Gentile was an Italian philosopher, professor, and politician born in 1875. He is best known for developing and refining the ideology of Fascism, which was his way of putting into practice his philosophy.
Fascism is a far-right political ideology characterised by an authoritarian ruler that tightly controls all aspects of society and suppresses any opposition. Fascism embraces the use of violence and is associated with nationalism and collectivism.
Read our explanation of Fascism to find out more!
Fig. 1 Giovanni Gentile
Initially, Gentile was known in Italy as a Hegelian philosopher who developed the ideology of actual idealism.
Hegel and the ethical state. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher best known for the development of idealism. Idealism is the school of thought that believes that the only real entities are our ideas and our thoughts. According to idealism, what we see in the world is merely a creation of the mind. Idealism, in philosophy, is opposed to realism. Realists assert that reality exists independently of the mind or of the human interpretation of it.
However, it's Hegel's understanding of the state that would make a lasting impact on Gentile's philosophy. For Hegel, the State was the only way for individuals to be truly free. This is because he understood the state as what humans would create to ensure everybody's needs were met. He saw the creation of the state as the ultimate moral behaviour because he thought people could only be understood, not as individuals, but through their relationships with their family, their society, and their state. In turn, the state, in Hegel's opinion, would capture this understanding of mutual existence, protect it in law, and provide stability and order.
Idealism differentiates two forms of thinking. The thinking we do as a way of perceiving the world around us, which can be equated to science. And the thinking we do when we are imagining things that are not real, which can be equated to religion, or philosophy: the “ideal”.
A central characteristic of Gentile's philosophy of actual idealism, or actualism is that it preserves free-agency. This is an individual's ability to decide and act for themselves. Actual idealism aims to “actualise” the ideal we can perceive with our mind. For Gentile, the way to do this was through the creation of ethical state, embodied by Fascism.
“For Fascism…the State and the individual are one, or better, perhaps, “State” and “individual” are terms that are inseparable in a necessary synthesis1”
Giovanni Gentile and Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was an Italian journalist and politician whose memory is imprinted in history as the dictator behind Fascist Italy.
Check out our explanation on Benito Mussolini
Together with Giovanni Gentile, they are considered respectively the political and philosophical minds behind Fascism. Together, they wrote “Doctrine of Fascism”, first published in 1932. This work is considered the work that embodies the principles and the philosophical foundations of the Ideology.
Gentile was also included by Mussolini in the Grand Council of Fascism, the main political body in Fascist Italy that controlled all other institutions.
Mussolini was arrested in 1943, and his National Fascist Party dissolved. He was subsequently rescued in a secret mission by the German army and convinced by Hitler to create a second incarnation of fascism. This was to be the Italian Social Republic. Throughout this, Gentile stayed loyal to Mussolini, and was appointed as a member of this second Fascist Government. The Italian Social Republic came to an end in 1945 when Germany surrendered to the Allies. Mussolini was executed by Italian partisans in 1945, and Gentile was killed by the Italian Communist party in 1944.
The Allies were a military alliance, initially formed by the United Kingdom, United States, China, and the Soviet Union, who won in World War II. In the latter part of the war in Italy, the Allies fought alongside Italian partisan against the Fascist army, which was backed by Nazi Germany.
Giovanni Gentile Socialist
Even though Fascism is generally considered a far-right ideology both Gentile and Mussolini started off as members of the Italian Socialist party.
Socialism is a left-wing political and economic ideology based on the population owning, controlling and re-distributing of the means of production to benefit everybody equally. It opposes private property and the competitive capitalist accumulation of wealth that only benefits the few.
The main similarity between socialism and fascism is that they are both collectivistic ideologies.
Collectivism is the perspective that prioritises the needs of the community, the collective, and the whole of society, over the needs of the individual. Collectivism stands in opposition to individualism, which instead emphasises the importance of individual freedom. Both Socialism and Fascism advocate that people should do what it's best for their community. Capitalism, instead, as an individualistic ideology, promotes individual freedom, and the right to act independently of the state.
The Split from Socialism happened for Mussolini when he supported military intervention in World War I. The Socialist party opposed this, and expelled him. This was because Socialism is an international ideology. It believes in uniting the “working class” to attain ownership of their lives through more or less revolutionary means, depending on what strand of socialism we consider.
Have a look at our explanation on Socialism!
Both Mussolini and Gentile believed in a nationalistic version of socialism. They called this Fascism. Let's explore this further.
Nationalistic implies a close identification with our own nation and its interests, often to the detriment of other nations.
Giovanni Gentile and Fascism
The very name, “Fascism,” implies strength in numbers.
“Fascism” comes from the Italian “fascio”, or “bundle”. The flag of Fascism includes the picture of a bundle, which, when bound together, is stronger than the individual strands that create it.
Fig. 2 Flag of Italian Fascism
Gentile did not believe in individualism, as he thought it led to selfishness. Instead, as mentioned in the idea of the ethical state above, he believed that all private actions should promote and advance the interests of the state. The state, according to Gentile, was to be headed by philosophers who subscribed to his ideology of actualism, and would therefore create the ethical state. In this, he was non-egalitarian and believed in a natural hierarchy of people. He did not believe in the parliamentary process, but that in a true democracy, the people should be subordinate to the state. He believed that the state should be the one that makes decisions that applied to all of life's facets and that would benefit all.
Egalitarianism is the belief that all people are equal.
Parliamentary process, in a democracy, means the way rules and policies are discussed and decisions are made among people who represent the population.
In these ideas, we see the shaping of Italy as a fascist state.
Check out our explanation on Fascism and Fascist Italy
Fascism is by definition autarkic, as it attempts to reach economic self-sufficiency. To achieve such self-sufficiency, the state imposed measures that the population could not veer away from.
The Fascist state made membership to trade union compulsory. It then directly controlled all the trade unions to suppress any opposition and to reward those who supported it.
These measures exemplify another crucial aspect of the economy of Fascism, namely, corporatism.
Corporatism is a political and economic ideology that advocates structuring society according to groups, each controlling an aspect of society, for example, agricultural, business, scientific, and military. The key to corporatism is that all these groups will be working towards “common interests”, in the case of Fascism, these “common interests” will be the ones dictated by the state. Corporatism is often considered in relation to capitalism. While both embrace private property, Capitalism emphasises the accumulation of capital for individual benefit. Corporatism can therefore be understood as the economic system that links Fascism to Socialism on one side, and to Capitalism on the other.
Giovanni Gentile and the reform of education
Giovanni Gentile held many positions as a professor of philosophy at several Italian Universities. He believed that education, specifically philosophy, was essential in cultivating the ability to develop a conscience and perceive the “universal ideal”.
Conscience, for Gentile, corresponds to acting out what we conceive of as the universal ideals of what is ethical.
Universal ideals are the principles about humanity that can be applied to everybody.
While Minister for Education, in Mussolini's Fascist cabinet, Gentile introduced some reforms that would have a significant impact on the Italian education system for years to come.
- He extended compulsory education.
- In line with Fascism's belief in a natural hierarchy of people, he introduced two educational options at the end of compulsory education. One would be a practical, technical path that would provide easy access into the workforce for the “lower strata”. The other would be “classical” education for those who are more “intellectually inclined”. This latter option focused mostly on teaching the humanities, which he considered superior to the sciences. They included the study of history, debating on ancient philosophical texts and encouraging the development of free, critical thought.
- The teaching of foreign languages was abolished.
As well as contributing to the education system, Gentile spent many years of his life editing the Italian Encyclopedia, which included an extended entry on the ideology of Fascism.
Giovanni Gentile - Key takeaways
- Giovanni Gentile was an Italian Hegelian philosopher, professor, and politician.
- Giovanni Gentile developed his own version of Hegel's idealism, called actual idealism, or actualism.
- Actualism, according to Gentile, is best expressed in the ethical state, represented by the Fascist state.
- Gentile, together with Benito Mussolini, wrote the Doctrine of Fascism.
- The ethical state, according to Gentile, was to be headed by a small group of philosophers who would make and impose decisions on the population for the collective benefit.
- Fascism is different from Socialism, as it's nationalistic and autarkic.
References
- Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini Origins and Doctrine of Fascism trans. A. James Gregor 2011
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Frequently Asked Questions about Giovanni Gentile
What did Giovanni Gentile believe?
Giovanni Gentile was a Hegelian philosopher who developed Hegelian Idealism into his own ideology named actual idealism. He believed that Ideas are the only real entity, reality is a reflection of ideas. And the most ethical behaviour is to create an ethical state, which to him was embodied by the Fascist State.
Did Giovanni Gentile create fascism?
Giovanni Gentile created the ideology of Fascism.
Who is considered the father of Fascism?
Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini are respectively the philosophical and political minds behind Fascism.
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