ABSTRACT
Antonio Labriola’s theory of historical materialism is an offshoot of Brtrando Spaventa’s teaching, grafted on the stock of positivism. Spaventa was the first to envisage clearly the position in history of Italian thought: he therefore represents this movement of thought coming to a clear consciousness of itself. In Italy positivism rises with the sound programme of refusing to anticipate reality by thought, but it fails to live up to its promises, and declines into a hybrid eclecticism with an ill-concealed tendency towards materialism. The different tendencies visible in the history of Italian idealism are gathered up and brought into a single brilliant focus by the philosophy of Croce. The same dissolution of Hegelianism which was being unconsciously effected in Spaventa’s thought was taking place in a different manner in the work of his great fellow-countryman, Francesco de Sanctis.
