Reception of the philosophy of education of Giovanni Gentile: from neo-idealism to neo-spiritualism

Abstract

In this article we carry out an approach to the reception of the philosophy of education of Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944), one of the most important thinkers in the neoidealist current who in 1922 was part of Mussolini’s first cabinet as minister of Public Instruction, from where he launched an education reform of a humanistic, conservative and elitist nature, which earnt the attention of some of our educators. In this sense, and after some introductory notes on the Risorgimento, the battle that neo-idealism waged against positivism and liberalism is presented, at times of profound crisis in European culture. Then a review is made of the alternative represented by neo-idealist monism, which reduces education to a strictly philosophical discipline, to Herbart’s pedagogy, which as is known divides education into two large spheres, psychology and ethics. Finally, some aspects of the inheritance of Gentile within Francoism are explained and, above all, their effect on neo-spiritualism (with authors such as Michele Federico Sciacca), seen as a late fruit of neo-idealism. If after 1945 neo-idealism lost followers, as of May 68 neo-spiritualism began to retreat, just when the death of Pedagogy was being announced or, what is the same, the death of philosophical Pedagogy which –for some– amounts to dogmatic pedagogy or metaphysical pedagogy.

Key words: Philosophy of education, history of education, neo-idealism, Giovanni Gentile, fascism, Francoism, neo-spiritualism, M. F. Sciacca.