The Theory of Mind as Pure Act

The Italian neo-Hegelian idealist philosopher Giovanni Gentile (30 May 1875-15 April 1944) was born in Castelvetrano, Sicily. His influences were Mazzini, Rosmini, Gioberti, and Spaventa from whom he borrowed the idea of self-construction, as well as German idealist and materialist philosophers Karl Marx, Hegel, and Fichte, with whom he shared the ideal of creating a Wissenschaftslehre, a theory for a structure of knowledge that makes no assumptions. Friedrich Nietzsche, too, was an influence, as can be deduced from the analogy between Nietzsche's Übermensch and Gentile's Uomo fascista. Gentile taught philosophy at the universities of Palermo, Pisa, and Rome, and was Vice President of Bocconi University, Milan. Mussolini appointed him Minister of Public Education in 1922. Three years later, Gentile headed two constitutional reform commissions that were instrumental in establishing the corporate state of Fascism. He also served as president of the Fascist State's Grand Council of Public Education (1926-28), and then served as member of the powerful Fascist Grand Council (1925-29). Gentile's loyalty to Mussolini never faltered, even when the Fascist government collapsed in 1943. He was given an appointment in the government of the Republic of Salò, the puppet state installed by Nazi Germany in Northern Italy. He was the last president of the Royal Academy of Italy (1943-1944). In 1944, a cohort of anti-Fascist partisans fired at and killed Gentilethe police in Florence, where he had, ironically, pleaded for the release of anti-fascist intellectuals. His friend Benedetto Croce wrote that Gentile ... holds the honour of having been the most rigorous neo-Hegelian in the entire history of Western philosophy and the dishonour of having been the official philosopher of Fascism in Italy. Gentile's philosophical system can be interpreted as an idealist foundation for legal naturalism.