Ultimate magazine theme for WordPress.

Rosmini and Gramsci

The raise of the idea of Civil Society in modern Italian political thought (A video course by Prof. Markus Krienke)

The concept of civil society is a typical concept of political though in European modernity, and it is quite noteworthy that two Italian philosophers gave a significant contribution to its development: Rosmini and Gramsci designed two diverse concepts to overcome the contradictory definition of civil society in Hegel, resolving it either into the resolution of social “hegemony” (Gramsci) or into the institution of personal natural rights (Rosmini).

The recent debate of political philosophy discovers the concept of civil society. In times of crisis of the national state and super-national dynamics as we face in the case of the European Union but also of the globalized markets and the global problem of terrorism, ‘civil society’ seems for some authors the ‘magic’ formula for resolving these challenges. But things are not as easy as they seem, and in order to get more analytical clearness into the debate on civil society, in which everyone understands something diverse, we propose a reflection on two ‘Italian’ ways of thinking this concept: both ‘Antonio’ – Rosmini e Gramsci – recur to its Hegelian origin, stressing the two contradictory elements which the Idealistic thinker Hegel resolved dialectically in the ‘state’: the individualistic and personalistic dimension of liberty on the one hand, and the solidary and institutional resolution of its conflicts in a public and political ‘consensus’. As it becomes clear, for Rosmini counts more the aspect of ‘recognition’ of the other in his rights, while for Gramsci it seems more important to transform the hegemonic ideas of society which form inevitably the social consensus. Both ‘Antonio’ advance some considerations which have not lost any critical and inspiring dimension for the actual debate and the future perspectives for an ‘European’ or “Global Civil Society’. While the indispensable role of intellectuals is a common element, the importance of individual rights and freedoms and the hegemonic function of ideas are the main differences.

Articoli correlati