Gioberti, Vincenzo
Gioberti, Vincenzo
An Italian statesman and philosopher; b. at Turin, 5 April, 1801; d. at Paris, 26 October, 1852. When still very young he lost his parents and at the age of sixteen he was admitted among the clerics of the court, he studied theology at the Turin University, and obtained there the doctorate; he was ordained priest in 1825 and appointed court chaplain and professor in the theological college. In 1828 he made a journey through Lombardy, and became friendly with Manzoni and other great men. He caused Rosmini’s philosophy to be known in Piedmont, though at a later date he became its opponent. At this time under the pen-name “Demofilo” he was writing articles in Mazzini’s “Giovane Italia”, printed at Marseilles. In 1833 he resigned his court chaplaincy, and soon after was arrested on suspicion of political intrigues. Nothing could be proved against him, but he was expelled from the country and went to Paris, where he made many friends. He now ceased contributing to the “Giovane Italia” and Cousin offered him a chair of philosophy on condition that he would not oppose Cousin’s own philosophical system. Though financially in very straitened circumstances, Gioberti refused the offer. He then accepted an offer to teach philosophy in a private school at Brussels conducted by an Italian. During his stay in Brussels most of his works where published.
In 1841, on the appearance of his book “Del Buono”, the Grand Duke of Tuscany offered him a chair in the Pisa University, but King Charles Albert objected, and the offer came to nothing. His fame in Italy dates from 1843 when he published his “Del primato morale e civile degli Italiani”, which he dedicated to Silvio Pellico. Starting with the greatness of ancient Rome he traced history down through the splendours of the papacy, and recounting all that science and art owed to the genius of Italy, he declared that the Italian people were a model for all nations, and that their then insignificance was the result of their weakness politically, to remedy which he proposed a confederation of all the states of Italy with the pope as their head. It is curious that in this work he is very severe on the French, yet he has not a word to say about the Austrians who then occupied Lombardy and the Venetian territory. Pope and prince received the work very coldly, and a few Jesuits wrote against it. In 1845 he was once more in Paris and published the “Prolegomeni al Primato”, in which he attacked the Jesuits; and in 1847 he printed “II Gesuita Moderno”, a large sized pamphlet, full of vulgar invective, in 1848 this was followed by an “Apologia del Gesuita Moderno”. These works were answered in 1849 by the Jesuit Father Curci’s “Divinazione sulle tre ultime opere di V. Gioberti”. Early in 1848, when Italy was burning with hopes of liberty and independence, Gioberti returned to his native land and was joyously received by his fellow-townsmen. Soon afterwards he went to Milan to calm the over-impetuous and to oppose Mazzini; from there he visited King Charles Albert at Sommacampagna. He received a mission for Rome, and on his arrival his reception was so enthusiastic that the pope became alarmed. On his return from Rome the king wanted to appoint him senator of the kingdom, but Gioberti preferred to be elected as deputy; he became president of the Chamber and, in July, he joined the Collegno cabinet. After the unfortunate Salasco armistice he broke up the cabinet, declared for a continuation of the war against Austria, and bitterly assailed the Revel ministry. He next founded a society to propagate the idea of a federated Italy, with the King of Piedmont and not the pope at its head. In December he became president of the ministry (with Rattazzi and other democrats) whereas the new cabinet was all for war, Giobertl had learned caution, and was anxious to reorganize the army. Moreover, he wanted Piedmont to re-establish in their estates the pope and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had been driven out by the revolution; so he quarrelled with his fellow-ministers and resigned on 20 February, 1849, but in the newspapers he carried on the quarrel. After the disastrous battle of Novara (23 March, 1849), Victor Emmanuel II offered him a portfolio; he agreed to join the ministry but would not take a portfolio. He was then sent as plenipotentiary minister to Paris to solicit French aid in Italy. He was unsuccessful, and finding he was out of favour at Turin he resigned his post, but remained in Paris, where, after three years passed in study, he died. In 1851 he published his “Rinnovamento civile d’ Italia” which contains an impassioned criticism of political events from 1848 onwards. This last book, while it clings to the idea of a federated Italy, shows that Gioberti was a republican and that he hoped the loss of the papal temporal power would bring about the religious renovation of Italy. Thereupon all his works were put on the Index. His closing years were embittered by seeing his hopes shattered, and this bitterness finds an echo in his works.
Gioberti’s philosophy is a mixture of pantheistic ontologisrn with Platonism and traditionalism. The ontologism of Malebranche, as modified by Cardinal Gerdil, had been taught him at the Turin University. His first principle is that the primum cognitum of the human intellect is idea or being; i.e. absolute and eternal truth as far as “human intuition” can grasp it is God Himself. “Being” he calls the primum philosophicum, because in the mental order it is the primum psychologicum, and in the order of existing things it is the primum ontologicum; it is the common foundation of all reality and all knowledge. Intuition of being embraces the judgment, “being exists or is necessarily”, which is not the result of any mental process, but is the spontaneous effect produced when being presents itself to the mind. But in being we merely see its relative attributes, not its essence, we remains unknown (the superintelligible) and is the object of revealed religion. Among these relative attributes is comprised the creative act, by intuition of which, in being, we arrive at a knowledge of its results, namely, contingent things, and thus establish the formula idealis, “being creates existing things”, ens creat existentias. This judgment is synthetical a priori, not in the Kantian sense, but by “objective synthesis” resulting from the revelation of being. However, intuition of the idea remains too indeterminate, and hence the necessity of speech which so circumscribes the idea that we can contemplate or re-think it (this is pure traditionalism).
His theory of creation is the most important part of his system and requires a longer explanation. He calls the idea also the Esse Universale, which is common to and identical in all things, and which is nothing more or less than their possibility itself. Before the creation idea (being, God) is universalis and abstract. It becomes concrete by its own act, individuating itself, making itself finite, and multifying itself. “To create is therefore to individuate”. In this process the intelligible that was absolute becomes relative; there are two cycles to the process, one descending, inasmuch as the idea infringes on the concrete (mimesis), and other ascending, it reaches out more and more towards the intelligible absolute (methexis), and participates of the Divine Being (this is pure Platonism). Thus he arrives at the conclusion that in the intellectual order the ideas of created things are so many steps in the scale of the Divine Essence. And as regards creation, he adopts the saying of Hegel that “logic . . . is nothing but creation “. From all this, Gioberti’s pantheism is evident. No doubt he is always asserting that God was distinct from His creatures; but the sincerity of these statements is not beyond question. As a matter of fact, after his separation from the Mazzinians they published a letter of his to the “Giovane Italia” in which he expressly stated that pantheism is the only true and sound philosophy”. His theory of mimesis and methexis is also used to prove the immortality of the soul. Then again the idea of being is made the foundation of moral obligation as a binding force, and, inasmuch as it approves or disapproves, we have the concepts of merit and demerit. The aim of the moral law is to bring to pass the perfect union of existences and being, in other words to complete the methexic cycle. Man endowed with freedom can appproach or keep away from being; hence the origin of evil; and when such aversion from being is endless it becomes necessary and immanent. Later, however, recognizing that this would be an exception to the “logical” law of methexis, he denied this eternal immanence of evil.
It is noteworthy that, in politics, he denied the sovereignty of the people. In Gioberti’s theory the object of religion is the supernatural and the superintelligible, which meant according to him the essence of being revealed by means of speech. On the other hand he treats at length of the harmony between religion and science or civilization. But as a rule all his vague theorizing was tinged with rationalism, and even in his latest works he writes: “science and civilization must go on throwing light on what is supernatural and superintelligible in religion”, and again, “modern rationalism is destined to bring about the union of orthodoxy and science”. His philosophical works are: “Teorica del sovrannaturale” (1838; 2nd ed., with replies to critics, 1850); “Introduzione allo studio della filosofia” (1840); “Lettere sugli errori politico-religiosi di Lamennais” (1840); “Del Bello” and ” Del Buono” (1841); “Errori filosofici di Antonio Rosmini.” (1842). Mention should also be made of his posthumous works: “Riforma Cattolica”; “Filosofia della Rivelazione”; “Protologia”. His complete works in thirty-five volumes were published at Naples, in 1877.
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U. BENIGNI Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VICopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Gioberti Vincenzo
a distinguished Italian philosopher and statesman, was born at Turin, April 5, 1801. He studied theology in the university of his native city, was received doctor in 1823, and in 1825 was ordained priest and appointed professor of theology in the university. He acquired great reputation, and became court chaplain in 1831. Soon afterwards he was implicated in a republican conspiracy (said to have been instigated by the Jesuits, in order to destroy the liberal sympathies of the king), was thrown into prison, and then exiled without trial. He went first to Paris, thence to Brussels, where he remained until 1843, in the humble position of tutor in a private school. Some time after he declined a professorship of philosophy offered him by cardinal Wiseman, preferring to devote all his time to his literary labors. His first publication was the Teoria del Sopranaturale (Capolago, 1838). In 1839 he published his Introduzione allo studio della Filosofia. This remarkable work was followed in 1841 by his Del Bello, in which the author analyzes Christian epopee, and especially Danta’s Divina Comedia. Gioberti next employed himself against the modern Geraiman philosophers and the French encyclopedists, whose ideas outlived the Revolution. He wrote successively the Lettres polemiques contre La Mennais (Paris, 1840); Del Buono; and Errori filosofici di Antonio Rosmini (Capolago, 1842). In opposing the pantheistic tendencies of La Mennais and Rosmini, Gioberti evinces great argumentative talent, and a vivid imagination. He aimed at making Italy throw off the yoke of foreign doctrines, with the ultimate view of enabling her subsequently to expel foreign political interference. He was careful always to profess orthodox opinions, no as not to give either time Italian princes or the pope any hold against him. His new catholic system found many adherents. In order to raise the clergy in the popular esteem, be advocated such reforms as the spirit of the times required, and advised the priests to head the social movement and to disseminate instruction among the people. He also called on the learned men of Italy, inviting them to regain their former ascendency by uniting faith with science and art. In this view he wrote his Il Primato civile e morales degli Ital. (Paris, 1843). This remarkable work, which proposedthe plan of a Roman confederacy headed by the pope, and which has had great influence on the recent history ‘of Italy’, was not at the time in harmony with public opinion. The substance of the book is as follows: “Italy has been twice at the head of European civilization; once is antiquity, and again in the Middle Ages. In the latter period Italy owed its supremacy to the popes, who were then the natural arbiters of princes and the spiritual sovereigns of the nations. The downfall of Italy is due to the downfall of the papacy. The problem now is to restore the papal power, as a moral dominion based on religion and public opinion.” Gioberti aims at “restoring the papal arbitration between the sovereign and the ‘people; lie wishes to lead it back to the’ time of Gregory VII and of Alexander III, and in this restoration of the past finds the best means of repulsing foreign oppression by the unaided efforts of Italy alone. As for the form of government, he inclines to a constitutional monarchy, sand, like Alfieri, considers Piedmont as the most compact, best organized, and most vital state of Italy; calls it to closer union with the other provinces, and by showing to it the perspective of a united Italy, invites it to become the champion of national independence.” The work was published under the most unfavorable circumstances, during the last years of the pontificate of Gregory XVI. The Jesuits, despite a few compliments to their order, which the author had skilfully introduced in his book, were alarmed at its tendencies. Gioaberti, however, answered their objections in I Prolegomeni (1845); II Gesuita moderns (Capolago, 1847, 8 volumes; German transl. by Cornet, Lpz. 1849, 3 volumes). This work, written ab irato, had an immense effect; the Jesuits were expelled from Piedmont, and from all the other states of Peninsular Italy.
After the events of 1848 Gioberti was recalled from exile, and his return was a triumph. He went to Milan, started the project of union between Lombardy and Piedmont, and traversed Central Italy, inviting all parties to unite for the good of the country. He declined the office of senator which was offered him by Charles Albert, but was elected to the House of Representatives by the inhabitants of Turin, and at once chosen for its president. In 1848 he was minister of public instruction, and president of the so-called Democratic council. Austrian intrigues defeated Gioberti’s plans, and he was obliged to withdraw from the cabinet. He then advocated his views in a newspaper entitled Il Sagnsatore. The misfortunes of Italy and the abdication of Charles Albert rendered it necessary for him to take again an active part in state affairs. Victor Emmanuel appointed him in the Deaaunae-Pinelli cabinet, without any special department; vaet the conservative party managed soon after to have him appointed ambassado- to Paris, as a means of getting rid of him. He understood it so, sent in his resignation, and on the arrival of his successor, count Gallina, returned to private life. He afterwards published his Del Rinnovamento civile dell’ Italia (Paris and Turin, 1851, 2 volumes). In this work he examines with great impartiality into the causes of the present position of Italy. Among the chief obstacles to its independence he signalizes on the one hand, the exaggeration of the principles of municipal and ecclesiastical power, and, on the other, the dangerous influence of Mazzinianism. Sympathizing with the loyalty and liberalism of Victor Emmanuel, be, so to say, traces out for him the line to be followed to arrive at the regeneration of Italy. Gioberti was preparing a philosophical work, entitled Protologia, when he. died suddenly at Paris, October 25, 1851. His most important work is the Introduzione, which has been translated into French under the title Introduction al teltude de la Philosophie (Paris, 1847, 3 volumes, 8vo).
The Christian Remembrancer (July 1853, art. 1) remarks upon it as follows, “With regard to the Introduction to Philosophy, it is extremely difficult to express an opinion, because (speaking with the utmost seriousness) we have a great difficulty in deciding, upon internal evidence alone, whether it was the product of a sane mind. The excitement visible throughout; the lofty tone in which he passes judgment upon others, and pours forth his own ‘utterances;’ the virulence with which he treats some who differ from him, combined with the obscurity and dreaminess of the opinions expressed; the extraordinary nature of the premises be assumes, and his dogmatism, not the less arrogant from his entire unconsciousness. All these things on the one hand, and, on the other, his acuteness, depth, information, and power of argument, leave us much at a loss to discover whether the author was in his sober senses or not. We give a brief abstract of his views, so far as we have been enabled to comprehend them. He conceives that the source of all human knowledge is in God, and that it is one whole, and in a manner identical with God himself; and the name which he gives it is ‘L’ Idea,’ or Thought. This divine thought is communicated to man in proportion as he is capable of receiving it; and it is ‘the light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world.’ Man receives it by means of his reason, which is capable of directly beholding it; and this direct beholding (or intuition) of the ‘Idea’ is the origin and first cause of all the knowledge of natural things which the mind of man possesses. It is innate, inasmuch as it rises to the mind at the same moment as the thought which apprehends it; but it does not rise within the mind, but enters it from without. It is the principle of knowledge to the human mind, from the very first exercise of its powers as a thinking being. The similarity of this view to that of Plato, revived and modified by Malebranche and Leibnitz, is sufficiently evident. But this direct intuition of the divine thought by the reason, although the origin of all thoughts in the soul, is by itself but inchoate and imperfect. In order to render it available, it requires that this intuition should be reflected on; and this can be done only by means of language, for man cannot reflect on and (so to speak) repeat the original intuition except by means of language, which renders determinate what was before imperfect. For this purpose language was given to man, and by means of language God originally reveals to man that which he has caused him to behold by internal and direct intuition; and by means of language this same revelation is repeated and carried on from generation to generation; and by the same medium, employed analogically, the knowledge of the divine thought is more and more revealed. Yet language is not the cause of human knowledge, nor is it, in the case of ordinary knowledge, the medium of the exhibition of the divine thought to the mind (for that shines immediately upon the mind), but it is the occasion of its being completely revealed. For the purposes of ordinary and natural knowledge this combination of intuition with language is the method ordained; but supernatural knowledge can be conveyed only by means of language; and divine truths are not seen by intuition, but believed.
Yet all knowledge of every kind has its source in the divine thought, and consists of such views of it as the individual is capable of. Besides reason, which is capable of beholding the divine thought, man has likewise internal and spiritual feelings or emotions, which are modifications of the mind, and preserved by feeling; and, in addition, he possesses material and external feelings, having reference to the properties of bodies, and perceived by sensation and the outward senses. The ordinary range of modern metaphysics is confined to these internal and external feelings; and it is a common error to substitute the internal feeling as a first principle, instead of that which is apprehended by the reason through direct intuition, and revealed to the soul by language and reflection. It is likewise an equally common error to substitute reflection on these internal and external feelings for reason, as the initiatory instrument of that knowledge which is the basis of philosophy. (Here he is evidently alluding to Locke and his followers.) But it is by the view or intuition of the divine thought that meaning is given to these various feelings, external and internal, and to the various sensible objects by which they are surrounded. The basis of all knowledge is the knowledge of being; yet not of an abstract idea, but of the concrete personal Being, God himself, acting as a cause and producing existences, who is, in fact, the only being, because he alone has being in himself.
The knowledge of this being is gained by revelation, by means of the written word, wherein he declares himself, ‘I am that I am;’ and the mind beholds him, and has him made known to it internally, through the reason, independently of all external sensations. God being the only being, all other things are only existences; and man learns from the revealed word that the one being created existences; not that he extends himself into these various manifestations (as Hegel teaches); not that he causes these existences to emanate from himself, as other Pantheists teach, but that he creates them. Man thus learns their proper nature, viz. that they are distinct, individual, real things, having a kind of personality; that it is the act of creation which gives them this reality and individuality; and that it is only by the fact of their being created that their reality is assured to us; that, in short, nothing but the act of creation could assure to us the reality of external things. Gioberti holds, moreover, that all our knowledge of philosophy must begin with a knowledge of being and existences, and their relation to each other; and that not of abstract being or abstract existence, but of one concrete Being, and of many concrete individual existences; and he thinks that the divine thought gives us a knowledge of the latter by a direct view of them, which gives life and meaning to all our sensations and feelings in connection with them. He likewise teaches that principles of knowledge are objective, eternal, and absolute; that they are not the creation of the’ mind, nor sought out by it, but that they present themselves to the mind unsought, and are first truths the foundation of other truths. He teaches that the permanent possession of the divine thought depends in a degree on man himself; that he may rebel against it, and thus fail to receive it, and fall into error. He teaches that it is by the participation of it that individuals possess a moral personality; that it is the vital principle, and that if it were entirely withdrawn the consequence would be annihilation; that inasmuch as the divine thought creates and governs the universe, it is the soul of the world; inasmuch as it dwells in men’s minds, it is knowledge; inasmuch as it actuates, produces, determines, and classifies the powers of nature, it is the generic and specific essence of things; that the basis of generality is the Divine Being himself, having in himself the ideas of all possible things, and the power of giving effect to those ideas.” He left a number of MSS., which were edited and published by G. Massari, under the title Opere inedite di Vincenzo Gioberti (Torino, 1856-60, 6 volumes, 8vo). There is an excellent article on the life and writings of Gioberti in the Christian Examiner, 1861, page 237. See also Massari, Vita e Morte di Gioberti (Flor. 1848), and Etudes sur Gioberti; Cruger, Esquisses Italiennes; Spaventa, La filosofia di Gioberti (Naples, 1864); Risorgimento (October 1851); Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 20:585 sq.; New American Cyclopcedia, 8:259 sq.; North British Review, volume 11; Brownson’s Review, 4:409 sq.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Gioberti, Vincenzo
Born in Turin (Italy) April 5, 1801. Died in Paris, October 26, 1852. Ordained priest 1825. Exiled to Paris, 1833, because too liberal. Triumphantly returned to Italy 1848. Served as Minister and Ambassador.
His fundamental problem was the relation between sensibility and intelligibility. Being creates existence. The universal spirit becomes individual by its own creation. Thus, the source of individuality is not subjective but divine. And individuality returns to universality when it attains the state of intelligibility from the state of sensibility.
Main worksTeoria della sovranaturale, 1838; Del bello, 1841; Del buono, 1842; Della filosofia della rivelazione, 1856 (posth.); Della protologia, 1857 (posth.). See B. Spaventa, La filosofia di G., 1863. — L.V.