LABRIOLA, ANTONIO. — Socialist theorist, born in Cassino on 2 July 1843, died in Rome on 12 February 1904. He was professor of moral philosophy at the University of Rome from 1873.
"A slow and continuous approach to the real problems of life, disgust at political corruption, and relations with workers" transformed his abstract socialism (Letters to Engels, Rome 1949, p. 2) into a complex rethinking of Marxist thought: for L., historical materialism resolves itself into the philosophy of praxis conceived as a method of inquiry and not as an intellectual vision (though the deposit of idealistic heritage remains alive here, since communism, for L., finds its expression in the consciousness of being the outcome and solution of class struggles). History is a synthesis of theory and practice; in it, man "produces" (according to a well-known formula of his) himself as both determinant and determined of society. Vague is L.'s concept of religion: it, in its proper sphere, can influence the destiny of the "vital essence" of ideals in the soul; but it is clear that for L., logically opposed to any metaphysical acceptance, the intuition of the universe is an absurd pretension.