Labriola, Antonio

LABRIOLA, ANTONIO. - Theorist of socialism, b. at Cassino on 2 July 1843, d. 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 for political corruption, relations with the workers» transformed his abstract socialism (Lettere a 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 research and not as an intellectual vision (in which, however, the deposit of the idealist heritage is still alive, because for L. communism finds its expression in the consciousness of being the outcome and the 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 determiner and determined of society. L.'s concept of religion is vague: religion, on its own proper ground, can exert an influence in keeping awake in the soul the «vital sap» of ideals; but it is clear that for L., logically averse to every metaphysical acceptance, the intuition of the universe is an absurd claim.

Massimo Petrocchi