Lucio Colletti (; 8 December 1924 – 3 November 2001) was an Italian Western Marxist philosopher. Colletti started to be known outside Italy because of a long interview with him that Marxist historian

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

published in the ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...

'' in 1974.

Biography

Colletti studied philosophy at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

, 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 ceremo ...

'' with a thesis entitled ''La logica di Benedetto Croce'' (''The Logic of

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce, ( , ; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography, and aesthetics. A Cultural liberalism, poli ...

''), which was supervised by . Inspired by the Western Marxist philosopher Galvano Della Volpe, he then gravitated towards

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

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

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, ...

. 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 ideals. Having been a member of the anti-fascist Action Party (''Partito d'Azione''; PdA) in his youth, he 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 ...

(PCI) in 1949 and emerged as an important cultural party figure. In 1964, Coletti left the PCI because the party's break with its semi-

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

past was leading towards what he called, in his view, 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 and statesman, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th Prime Minister of Italy, prime minister of Italy from 1 ...

. From 1996 until his death he was elected on the list of

Forza Italia (FI; ) was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian democratic,Chiara Moroni, , Carocci, Rome 2008 liberalOreste Massari, ''I partiti politici nelle democrazie contempoiranee'', Laterza, Rome-Bari 2004 (esp ...

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

political party, as a member of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

(lower house) 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''

References

External links

* Lucio Colletti
"Bernstein and the Marxism of the Second International"
from ''From Rousseau to Lenin''

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