Antonio Banfi (Vimercate, 30 September 1886 – Milano, 22 July 1957) was an Italian philosopher and

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

. He is also noted for founding the Italian philosophical school called

critical rationalism Critical rationalism is an epistemological philosophy advanced by Karl Popper on the basis that, if a statement cannot be logically deduced (from what is known), it might nevertheless be possible to logically falsify it. Following Hume, Popper ...

. Although influenced by the neo-Kantians in

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

and

Edmund Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...

, whom he knew personally, Banfi moved away from

idealism Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysics, metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, Spirit (vital essence), spirit, or ...

and instead focused on

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

, in particular

historical materialism Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...

. Banfi joined the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

in 1947. He was elected to the Italian Senate in 1948 and again in 1953. Banfi was a chair of the

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

's History of Philosophy department. Among his students were

Dino Formaggio Dino Formaggio (Milan, 28 July 1914 - Illasi, 6 December 2008) was an Italian philosopher, art critic, and academic. He is part of the Italian phenomenological school or the School of Milan and is noted for his development of an organic descrip ...

and

Mario Dal Pra Mario Dal Pra (1914–1992) was an Italian philosopher, academic, and historian. During World War II, he was also a partisan. Dal Pra was noted for developing his concept of praxis into an original philosophical approach called "transcedentalism ...

References

Bibliography

* Garin, E., "Banfi, Antonio" in Brochert, D. M. (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Second Edition, vol. 1 (Thomson Gale, 2006), p. 476. * Garin, E.,
History of Italian Philosophy
', vol. 2 (Rodopi, 2008), p. 1292. * Guiat, C.,
The French and Italian Communist Parties: Comrades and Culture
' (Frank Cass Publishers, 2003), pp. 144–150. {{DEFAULTSORT:Banfi, Antonio 1886 births 1957 deaths People from Vimercate Italian Communist Party politicians Senators of Legislature I of Italy Senators of Legislature II of Italy Members of the Italian Senate from Lombardy 20th-century Italian philosophers Materialists Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals