FERRI, LUIGI. – Philosopher, born in Bologna on 15 June 1826, died in Rome on 19 March 1895. He completed his early studies in his native city and continued them in Paris at the Lycée Bourbon and the École Normale. He taught in various institutions (Évreux, Dieppe, Toulouse). On returning to Italy, he taught philosophy at Annecy and Casale Monferrato. He was chief of staff to the Minister of Education Terenzio Mamiani in 1860; three years later he became professor of the history of philosophy at the Istituto superiore of Florence, and thereafter, in 1871, professor of theoretical philosophy in Rome.
A pupil of Giulio Simon and Saissec, he sought to reconcile the psychological eclecticism of Cousin and his school with the doctrines of Rosmini and Gioberti. Since nature is a complex of forces, that is, of principles of energy, and the spirit is likewise such, although endowed with consciousness to a greater degree, these are reconciled in the generic unity of nature and laws. Hence truth is defined as conformity of thought to its own laws and to the laws of being. The objective value of substance depends on the principle of causation, which, with respect to ourselves, we perceive directly, whereas with respect to things determinism is perceived analogically through the notion of force. God is at the same time immanent and transcendent. Without immanence, God becomes an abstract being; without transcendence, he loses his unity and personality.
F.’s personal ideas are found chiefly in the three papers read at the Accademia dei Lincei between 1885 and 1888: Analisi del concetto di sostanza, di causa e di forza; Dell’idea del vero e sua relazione con l’idea dell’essere; Dell’idea dell’essere.
Among his principal works on the history of philosophy, the following should be remembered: Della filosofia del diritto presso Aristotele (1855); Il genio di Aristotele (1886); Essai aux l'histoire de la philosophie en Italie au XIXe siècle (1869); La psicologia di Pomponazzi (1877); La psychologie de l'association depuis Hobbes (1883).