LABRIOLA, ANTONIO. - Theorist of socialism, born at Cassino on 2 July 1843, died at Rome on 12 Feb. 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 with political corruption, relations with the workers” transformed his abstract socialism (Lettere a Engels, Rome 1949, p. 2) into a comprehensive reconsideration of Marxist thought: for L., historical materialism is resolved into the philosophy of praxis, conceived as a method of investigation and not as an intellectual vision (in which, however, the legacy of idealism is still alive, since for L. communism 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 one of his well-known formulations) himself as both determiner and determined by society. The concept L. has of religion is vague: in its own proper sphere, it may help keep alive in the soul the “vital sap” of ideals; but it is clear that for L., logically opposed to every metaphysical acceptance, the intuition of the universe is an absurd pretension.