Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 46 No. 1, 2026.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21464/fi46109
The National and Philosophy – Spaventa, Esposito and the History of Italian Thought
Luka Bogdanić
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet, Ivana Lučića 3, HR–10000 Zagreb
Abstract
The present paper examines the philosophical-historiographical contribution of Bertrando Spaventa, one of the most significant representatives of Italian Hegelianism in the nineteenth century. Particular attention is devoted to his 1862 work La filosofia italiana nelle sue relazioni con la filosofia europea, in which Spaventa develops his original thesis on the “European circulation” of Italian philosophy. Beginning with an analysis of Renaissance thought as an anticipation of modern philosophical tendencies, Spaventa investigates the relationship between the national framework and the universal dimension of philosophical thought. The paper also examines the reception of Spaventa’s historiographical paradigm in the context of the contemporary debate on Italian Theory, as developed by Roberto Esposito. It argues that the cosmopolitan dimension Esposito attributes exclusively to Italian Theory is already anticipated in Spaventa’s concept of “European circulation of Italian philosophy”, and that Esposito’s critique of Spaventa is therefore only partially justified.
Keywords
history of Italian philosophy; Bertrando Spaventa; Roberto Esposito; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; national; cosmopolitan; dialectics
Hrčak ID:
351153
URI
Publication date:
20.9.2026.
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