The Gentile’s concept of Machiavelli. Returning to the origins of the educational community in interiore homine

This paper analyzes the influence to Niccolò Machiavelli’s thought in Gentile’s construction of the pedagogy of ethical State and humanism of labour. The machiavellian idea of virtue which establishes the educational meaning of praxis characterizes one of the main elements of Giovanni Gentile’s speculative approach: the social construction of the community in interiore homine. The humanism of labour, as conceptual development of the Renaissance homo faber, bases its educational praxis on the pedagogy of ‘taking care’ of humanizing mankind. According to Gentile, the modern roots of this educational poiesis are grounded in machiavellian realism and in his laic idea of potestas as freedom.