Remembering Augusto Del Noce

The writings of Italian Catholic philosopher Augusto Del Noce (1910-1989) aroused a great deal of interest when they first became available in English in recent years. One reason is that he was presenting an analysis of post-1960s Italian society that also explained the situation we face in America, but from a very different perspective. Del Noce viewed politics and philosophy as inseparably linked and believed that now, more than ever, society had to be understood in reference to the history of its thought. In his account, the dominant philosophy in Italy from the 19th century to the end of World War II was philosophical idealism. That position had little to do with the American understanding of “idealism” as a matter of lofty sentiment. It held that there is a progressive tendency in history toward freedom and enlightenment. That tendency has developed by stages so that achievements from earlier stages are preserved in later ones but in a different form.