Giovanni Gentile and the “Humanism of Labor”

Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944), considered by some to be the most influential Italian philosopher of the twentieth century as well as the leading exponent of Italian idealism, matured his convictions about the critical role that labor would have to play in the economy of the twentieth century in the years immediately following World War I. This vision was carried forward with coherence throughout his intellectual production, and it is organically fulfilled in his work-testament, Genesis and Structure of Society (published posthumously in 1946). Gentile conceived the modern world as having realized the spiritual significance of labor, just as he recognized the spiritual significance of culture. He saw a methodological and critical value in the “sense” of manual and intellectual activity, in its inextricable relationship to the “Absolute Spirit” which allows one to comprehend the formative value of working action. Gentile’s doctrine of “humanism of labor” affirms the importance of the encounter between “workers” and “intellectuals” in the context of human values, discovering a fusion of labor and culture.