ACRI, FRANCESCO. – Philosopher, born in Catanzaro on 19 March 1834, died in Bologna on 21 November 1913. He is commonly recognized as the most prominent representative in Italy of Christian spiritualism in the second half of the nineteenth century, although opinions concerning his speculation are not unanimous. Introduced to philosophy through reading Gioberti, he derived from it that inclination toward Platonism which would be his distinguishing characteristic, while a stay in Germany, during which he attended Trendelenburg’s lectures, facilitated his acquaintance with the most recent currents of thought. Professor of philosophy at the University of Bologna from 1871, he, with little concern for a personal systematic construction, was an energetic proponent of a vision of the world and of things that might be called Christian idealism: an original union of Platonism and Augustinianism, equally distant from and opposed to the scientific determinism and metaphysical agnosticism then prevailing. And the defense of the values of the spirit (which at times found resonance in broad cultural circles, as in the controversies with Imbriani, Spaventa, and Fiorentino, for which cf. F. Fiorentino, La filosofia contemporanea in Italia, Napoli 1876) was for A., beyond and more than the justification of a philosophical position, fidelity to his Catholic creed, which always shaped his life.
A.’s scholarly production, if compared with his long life, is not extensive and is rather fragmentary. He himself collected the best of his publications in four anthological volumes: 1) Videmus in aenigmate, Bologna 1907; 2) Amore, dolore, fede, ivi 1908; 3) Dialettica turbata, ivi 1911; 4) Dialettica serena, Rocca S. Casciano 1917 (published posthumously under the care of his son Umberto). The first of these volumes, which may be regarded as A.’s most ingenious and profound work, chiefly develops his doctrine of ideas, previously expounded in Abbozzo d'una teoria delle idee, Palermo 1870. His conception postulates in perception a certain intuition of God (an adapted reminiscence of Gioberti and Rosmini), as the condition enabling the mind to transform perception into an idea and to understand the perceived thing. On the other hand, he maintains the impossibility of an adequate cognition of any thing whatsoever, because of the infinite relations of every idea. «Il tutto è in tutto e le menti il tutto non lo vedono» seems to be the summarizing formula of A.’s thought. He cannot, however, be accused of skepticism, since he believes that through mystical intuition he obtains what he does not consider possible through reason alone (cf. E. Chiocchetti, Il sistema filosofico dell'A., in Riv. Filosofia Neosc., 5 [1913], pp. 566-81).
A.’s major work, however, is his translation of Plato, the finest produced in Italy. In an exceptionally elevated style, which at times also appears excessively precious, he makes Plato felt and live again, so as to render his soul by mirroring it in his own. The first edition of the 12 dialogues translated by A. was printed in 3 volumes in Milano in 1914; a better edition was published in Milano in 1921 by Libr. Ed. Pop. Ital. Particularly noteworthy in it are two original writings, which may be regarded as premises to the dialogues themselves: 1) Si considera secondo filosofia se si possa volgarizzare uno scrittore, qualunque egli sia e specialmente Platone; 2) Ragionamenti contro ai veristi filosofici, politici e poeti.