About the author …

When 17 years old, Benedetto Croce (1866-1952) was buried and injured in an earthquake which killed his parents and sisters. The family fortune enabled him to spend much of his life in independent historical, critical, and philosophical study as a self-taught philosopher. He studied some law at the University of Rome for a while, but spent most of his life in Naples—a city whose cultural traditions he wove into his books on history and culture. During his time he became influential through founding the journal La critica and offering editorial assistance to the publishing house Laterza. His best known works form four volumes of his systematic "The Philosophy of Spirit":[1] Æsthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic; Logic as the Science of Pure Concept; Philosophy of the Practical; and History: Its Theory and Practice. In political thought, he strongly opposed Benito Mussolini's fascism, but respect for Croce from the people of Italy kept him from serious harm. Beyond doubt, Croce was a major force in Italian philosophy during much of the twentieth century, and many historians of philosophy consider his work in æsthetics to be the most important of that century as well.