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GIOBERTI, VINCENZO (18oI-1852)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 30 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIOBERTI, VINCENZO (18oI-1852) , See also:Italian philosopher, publicist and politician, was See also:born in See also:Turin on the 5th of See also:April 18o1. He was educated by the fathers of the See also:Oratory with a view to the priesthood and ordained in 1825. At first he led a very retired See also:life; but gradually took more and more See also:interest in the affairs of his See also:country and the new See also:political ideas as well as in the literature of the See also:day. Partly under the See also:influence of Mazzini, the freedom of See also:Italy became his ruling See also:motive in life,—its emancipation, not only from See also:foreign masters, but from modes of thought See also:alien to its See also:genius, and detrimental to its See also:European authority. This authority was in his mind connected with papal supremacy, though in a way quite novel—intellectual rather than political. This must be remembered in considering nearly all his writings, and also in estimating his position, both in relation to the ruling clerical party—the See also:Jesuits—and also to the politics of the See also:court of See also:Piedmont after the See also:accession of See also:Charles See also:Albert in 1831. He was now noticed by the See also:king and made one of his chaplains. His popularity and private influence, however, were reasons enough for the court party to See also:mark him for See also:exile; he was not one of them, and could not be depended on. Knowing this, he resigned his See also:office in 1833, but was suddenly arrested on a See also:charge of See also:conspiracy, and, after an imprisonment of four months, was banished without a trial. Gioberti first went to See also:Paris, and, a See also:year later, to See also:Brussels, where he remained till 1845, teaching See also:philosophy, and assisting a friend in the See also:work of a private school. He nevertheless found See also:time to write many See also:works of philosophical importance, with See also:special reference to his country and its position. An See also:amnesty having been declared by Charles Albert in 1846, Gioberti (who was again in Paris) was at See also:liberty to return to Italy, but refused to do so till the end of 1847.

On his entrance into Turin on the 29th of April 1848 he was received with the greatest See also:

enthusiasm. He refused the dignity of senator offered him by Charles Albert, preferring to represent his native See also:town in the Chamber of Deputies, of which he was soon elected See also:president. At the See also:close of the same year, a new See also:ministry was formed, headed by Gioberti; but with the accession of See also:Victor See also:Emmanuel in See also:March 1849, his active life came to an end. For a See also:short time indeed he held a seat in the See also:cabinet, though without a See also:portfolio; but an irreconcilable disagreement soon followed, and his removal from Turin was accomplished by his See also:appointment on a See also:mission to Paris, whence he never returned. There, refusing the See also:pension which had been offered him and all ecclesiastical preferment, he lived frugally, and spent his days and nights as at Brussels in "See also:literary labour. He died suddenly, of See also:apoplexy, on the 26th of See also:October 1852. Gioberti's writings are more important than his political career. In the See also:general See also:history of European philosophy they stand apart. As the speculations of Rosmini-Serbati, against which he wrote, have been called the last See also:link added to See also:medieval thought, so the See also:system of Gioberti, known as " Ontologism," more especially in his greater and earlier works, is unrelated to other See also:modern See also:schools of thought. It shows a See also:harmony with the See also:Roman See also:Catholic faith which caused See also:Cousin to declare that "Italian philosophy was still in the bonds of See also:theology," and that Gioberti was no philosopher. Method is with him a synthetic, subjective and psychological See also:instrument. He re-constructs, as he declares, See also:ontology, and begins with the " ideal See also:formula," " the Ens creates ex nihilo the existent." See also:God is the only being (Ens) ; all other things are merely existences.

God is the origin of all human knowledge (called l'See also:

idea, thought), which is one and so to say identical with God himself. It is directly beheld (intuited) by See also:reason, but in See also:order to be of use it has to be reflected on, and this by means of See also:language. A knowledge of being and existences (See also:concrete, not abstract) and their mutual relations, is necessary as the beginning of philosophy. Gioberti is in some respects a Platonist. He identifies See also:religion with See also:civilization, and in his See also:treatise Del primato morale e civile degli Italiani arrives at the conclusion that the See also:church is the See also:axis on which the well-being of human life revolves. In it he affirms the idea of the supremacy of Italy, brought about by the restoration of the papacy as a moral dominion, founded on religion and public See also:opinion. In his later works, the Rinnovamento and the Protologia, he is thought by some to have shifted his ground under the influence of events. His first work, written when he was See also:thirty-seven, had a See also:personal reason for its existence. A See also:young See also:fellow-exile and friend, See also:Paolo Pallia, having many doubts and misgivings as to the reality of See also:revelation and a future life, Gioberti at once set to work with La Teorica del sovrannaturale, which was his first publication (1838). After this, philosophical See also:treatises followed in rapid See also:succession. The Teorica was followed by Introduzione allo studio della filosofia in three volumes (1839-1840). In this work he states his reasons for requiring a new method and new terminology.

Here he brings out the See also:

doctrine that religion is the See also:direct expression of the idea in this life, and is one with true civilization in history. Civilization is a conditioned mediate tendency to perfection, to which religion is the final completion if carried out; it is the end of the second See also:cycle expressed by the second formula, the Ens redeems existences. Essays (not published till 1846) on the lighter and more popular subjects, Del See also:bello and Del buono, followed the Introduzione. Del primato morale e civile degli Italiani and the Prolegomeni to the same, and soon after-wards his triumphant exposure of the Jesuits, Il Gesuita moderno, no doubt hastened the See also:transfer of See also:rule from clerical to See also:civil hands. It was the popularity of these semi-political works, increased by other occasional political articles, and his Rinnovamento civile d'Italiaf that caused Gioberti to be welcomed with such enthusiasm on his return to his native country. All these works were perfectly orthodox, and aided in See also:drawing the liberal See also:clergy into the See also:movement which has resulted since his time in the unification of Italy. The Jesuits, however, closed See also:round the See also:pope more firmly after his return to See also:Rome, and in the end Gioberti's writings were placed on the See also:Index (see J. Kleutgen, Uber See also:die Verurtheilung See also:des Ontologismus durch den heiligen See also:Stahl, 1867). The See also:remainder of his works, especially La Filosofia della Rivelazione and the Protologia, give his matureviews on many points. The entire writings of Gioberti, including those See also:left in See also:manuscript, have been edited by Giuseppe Massari (Turin, 1856-1861). See Massari, Vita de V. Gioberti (See also:Florence, 1848) ; A.

Rosmini-Serbati, V. Gioberti e it panteismo (See also:

Milan, 1848) ; C. B. See also:Smyth, See also:Christian See also:Metaphysics (1851); B. Spaventa, La Filosofia di Gioberti (See also:Naples, 1854) ; A. Mauri, Della vita e delle opere di V. Gioberti (See also:Genoa, 1853) ; G. Prisco, Gioberti e l' ontologismo (Naples, 1867) ; P. Luciani, Gioberti e la filosofia nuova italiana (Naples, 1866-1872); D. Berti, Di V. Gioberti (Florence, 1881) ; see also L. See also:Ferri, L'Histoire de la philosophic en See also:Italic au XIX' siecle (Paris, 1869) ; C.

See also:

Werner, Die italienische Philosophic des 19. Jahrhunderts, ii. (1885); appendix to See also:Ueberweg's Hist, of Philosophy (Eng. tr.); See also:art. in See also:Brownson's Quarterly See also:Review (See also:Boston, See also:Mass.), xxi.; R. Mariano, La Philosophic contemporaine en Italic (1866) ; R. Seydel's exhaustive See also:article in See also:Ersch and See also:Gruber's Allgemeine Encyclopadie. The See also:centenary of Gioberti called forth several monographs in Italy. GIOIOSA-IONICA, a town of See also:Calabria, Italy, in the See also:province of Reggio Calabria, from which it is 65 m. N.E. by See also:rail, and 38 m. direct, 492 ft. above See also:sea-level. Pop. (1901) town, 9072; See also:commune, 11,200. Near the station, which is on the E. See also:coast of Calabria 3 M. below the town to the S.E., the remains of a See also:theatre belonging to the Roman See also:period were discovered in 1883; the See also:orchestra was 46 ft. in See also:diameter (Notizie degli scavi, 1883, p. 423).

The ruins of an See also:

ancient See also:building called the Naviglio, the nature of which does not seem clear, are described (ib. 1884, p. 252).

End of Article: GIOBERTI, VINCENZO (18oI-1852)

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