The Philosophy of Praxis in Antonio Labriola

The article takes a position in the current debate on Antonio Labriola’s philosophy of praxis by identifying for the first time the historical document that prompted him to adopt the term. It is a review from 1897 in which Charles Andler laments the lack of attention to the gnoseological problem internal to Marx’s conception in the early essays on historical materialism. The use of the term in the discussion thus does not stem from an elaboration of the Theses on Feuerbach, which were deliberately neglected until 1897 and not even com-­ mented on later. Confronted with the reproach of not understanding the value of the Theses, Labriola reacted by showing that the philosophical concept of praxis should not be subject to the scholastic-­gnoseological approach but reinserted in a different ar-­ gumentative context. In the light of these considerations, the central section explains the peculiar features attributed by Labriola to the philosophy of praxis (1 -­ social gene-­ sis of needs;; 2 -­ relational structure of subjectivity;; 3 – ‘nexus of historicity’, i.e. inte-­ raction of psychic energy and historical objectifications) and elucidates the structural link that binds these features to the morphological and subordinate-­dialectical concep-­ tion of history. Faced with Giovanni Gentile’s revival of the gnoseological-­metaphysi-­ cal motif of Marxism, Labriola expressed an absolute and ironic dissent. In the ideali-­ stic transfiguration of the concept of praxis he grasped the danger of an overall arrest of culture, a disarticulation of the existing relationship between philosophy and the sciences and, ultimately, a retreat of philosophical engagement from the political hi-­ story of the new century.

Keywords: philosophy of praxis, dialectic, historical materialism, Charles Andler, Georges Sorel, Giovanni Gentile.

Davide Bondì, La filosofia della <i>praxis</i> di Antonio Labriola in "RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA" 4/2024, pp 668-687, DOI: 10.3280/SF2024-004003