FILANGIERI, GAETANO. - Jurist, b. in Naples on 22 Aug. 1753, d. at Vico Equense on 21 July 1788.
He owes his fame, very great in his own times, now almost faded, to the work Scienza della legislazione (Naples 1780 ff.). A believer in the Enlightenment's raison, he sees in the wisdom of a rational legislation the surest ethico-political method, not without at times the danger of falling into a juridical abstractness and mechanism (an evil, however, common to all the theorists of enlightened despotism), a danger that is moreover often avoided through the conscious utilitarian and individualistic solutions upheld in the problems of the State.
Favorable to a tempered monarchy, he exalts the balancing function (between it and the people) of an "intermediate field": nobility and magistracy; a solution that has its roots in the thought of Montesquieu. F. is not entirely bound to the esprit géométrique: in outlining, for example, the concept of nation he already perceives how it is founded on consciousness and on will. Naturally, however, the central nucleus of his theories is frankly Enlightenment-inspired: every state solution is for F. in a particular way a eudaemonistic solution; to the realization of happiness on earth tend likewise his pacifism as well as his humanitarianism.
In the social field he is favorable to the abolition of feudalism, and in the economic field to the pre-eminence of agriculture and to the single tax. In the field of criminal law he is a strenuous defender of the person against the few guarantees afforded by trials founded on the inquisitorial method. In the educational field he is an advocate of State instruction, which can generally form the "citizen": F.'s educational method links up with the naturalistic abstractness of the century: it is nature, "this sole mistress," that regulates the progressive order of pedagogy; naturally his acute gaze dissolves in concrete educational technique the initial harshnesses when he recognizes the demands of the spirit, which is free. The Scienza della legislazione was placed on the Index on 6 Dec. 1784, evidently for its rationalistic and jurisdictionalist postulates.
Bibliography9 worksG. Nisio, Il libro IV della Scienza della legislazione intorno alle leggi che riguardano la educazione, Rome 1904; P. Gentile, L'opera di G.
BIBL.: G. Nisio, Il libro IV della Scienza della legislazione intorno alle leggi che riguardano la educazione, Rome 1904; P. Gentile, L'opera di G. F., Bologna 1913; G. De Ruggiero, Il pensiero politico meridionale nel sarc. XVIII e XIX, Bari 1922, p. 67 ff.; U. Spirito, Il pensiero pedagogico di G. F., Florence 1924; B. Croce, Storia del Regno di Napoli, Bari 1925, see index; G. C. Massolo Sessa, L'educazione nazionale in G. F., Palermo 1941; B. Brunello, Il pensiero politico italiano del Settecento, Milan 1942, p. 236 ff.; L. Salvatorelli, Il pensiero politico italiano dal 17-ve al 18-ve, 3rd ed., Turin 1942, p. 37 ff.; E. Naselli Rocca, F., Brescia 1950.
Petrocchi, Massimo. “Filangieri, gaetano.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, coll. 1288–1289. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/filangieri-gaetano.
MLA
Petrocchi, Massimo. “Filangieri, gaetano.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, coll. 1288–1289. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/filangieri-gaetano.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec5_filangieri_gaetano,
author = {Petrocchi, Massimo},
title = {Filangieri, gaetano},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {V},
pages = {1288--1289},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/filangieri-gaetano}
}
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