Lucio Colletti (8 December 1924,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

– 3 November 2001, Venturina Terme,

Campiglia Marittima Campiglia Marittima is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Livorno in the Italian region Tuscany, located about southwest of Florence and about southeast of Livorno. Its toponym has been attested for the first time in 1004 as ''Campi ...

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) was an Italian Western Marxist philosopher. Colletti started to be known outside Italy because of a long interview that Marxist historian

Perry Anderson Francis Rory Peregrine "Perry" Anderson (born 11 September 1938) is a British intellectual, historian and essayist. His work ranges across historical sociology, intellectual history, and cultural analysis. What unites Anderson's work is a preoc ...

published in the ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...

'' in 1974.

Biography

Colletti studied philosophy at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

, where he earned a ''

laurea In Italy, the ''laurea'' is the main post-secondary academic degree. The name originally referred literally to the laurel wreath, since ancient times a sign of honor and now worn by Italian students right after their official graduation ceremony ...

'' with a thesis entitled ''La logica di Benedetto Croce'' (''The Logic of Benedetto Croce'') and directed by . In 1951, he was inspired by the Western Marxist philosopher

Galvano Della Volpe Galvano Della Volpe (24 September 1895 – 13 July 1968) was an Italian professor of philosophy and Marxist theorist. Life Born on 24 September 1895 in Imola, in the then province of Bologna, Della Volpe served in the First World War and after ...

. Colletti was well known as a critic of Hegelian idealism and also later became a noted critic of

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

. He wrote the foreword for the Italian edition of Alfred Schmidt's '' The Concept of Nature in Marx''. Colletti changed his political beliefs very often and abandoned many of his early Marxist beliefs. Colletti joined the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

(PCI) in 1949 and emerged as an important cultural party figure. In 1964, Coletti left the PCI because the break with its semi- Stalinist past was leading in what he called a "patently rightward direction."Jay, M
''Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas''
Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1984: 429. In the 1970s he was among the supporters of Socialist leader

Bettino Craxi Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( , , ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th prime minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first PSI membe ...

. From 1996 until his death he was elected in the list of Forza Italia,

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...

's right-wing political party, in the Italian parliament.

Selected publications

* The Manifesto of 101 * "The Theory of the Crash". ''Telos'', 13 (Fall 1972). New York: Telos Press. * 1972 (1974) ''From Rousseau to Lenin'' * 1973 (1979) ''Marxism and Hegel''

Notes

References

External links

English-language obituary from The Guardian (UK)
1924 births 2001 deaths 20th-century Italian philosophers 21st-century Italian philosophers 20th-century Italian politicians Former Marxists Italian communists Italian Marxists Italian political philosophers Marxist theorists Marxist writers People from the Province of Livorno Forza Italia politicians Deutscher Memorial Prize winners {{italy-philosopher-stub