ABSTRACT
Born in southern Italy, Croce dominated Italian culture until 1952. His copious writings on aesthetics, history, ethics and politics constitute a comprehensive humanist philosophy, which Croce hoped would provide a secular substitute for the consolations of religion. Originally immersed in studies of an antiquarian nature, Croce began to develop his own philosophy in the 1890s as a result of an examination of Marxist ideas encouraged by Antonio Labriola. Croce praised Marx for separating political considerations from ethical ones. Politics was concerned with the achievement and distribution of power rather than the morality of its use. As a result, politicians should attend only to the practicality of their acts. He later elaborated this thesis in the third volume of his Philosophy of the Spirit, the Philosophy of Practice (1909).
