Croce, Benedetto (1866–1952)

Italian philosopher, historian, and literary critic; the personification of the intellectual opposition to fascism. His Filosofia dello spirito/Philosophy of the Spirit (1902–17) was a landmark in idealism. Like the German philosopher G W F Hegel, he held that ideas do not represent reality but are reality; but unlike Hegel, he rejected every kind of transcendence.

A leading liberal, he served as minister of public instruction 1920–21 under Giovanni Giolitti, and his later Storia d'Italia dal 1871 al 1915/History of Italy from 1871–1915 (1928) provided a sophisticated vindication of the liberal regime. His ‘Manifesto of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals’ (1925) marked him out as a prominent opponent of Mussolini. A monarchist, he again served as a minister under Pietro Badoglio and Ivanoe Bonomi 1943–44.