How did a kid from a village on the island of Sardinia, far from modern civilization, not only shape Italian history, but also become a groundbreaking philosopher innovating in the domain of cultural theory? The backwards peasant became a famous art critic in Italy’s hippest city. Gramsci developed a refined appreciation of art and literature, while retaining a desire to share his love of high culture with the peasants and factory workers of Italy. He became cultured and the smartest guy in the room without becoming arrogant. How did he do that? That’s what we’re going to discuss today.

Published on: January 29, 1916

Published in: Il Grido del Popolo

Source: The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935, translated by David Forgacs

- [ ] Anti-Intellectualism, Today and Italy in 1916

- [ ] Gramsci’s Biography

- [ ] Know Thyself & The Enlightenment

- [ ] A Class-based Analysis of the Enlightenment

- [ ] Economics over Ideas

- [ ] Power: Ideas created false solidarity between the capitalists and the working class

- [ ] Socialism as the true fulfillment of the Enlightenment

In the last few episodes we have been talking about the scientific, religious, philosophical and political aspects of the Enlightenment. Today we will cover the Industrial Revolution.

The Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution were each distinct movements that overlap so significantly that it is hard to imagine one without the others. The Scientific Revolution lasted from 1543 with Copernicus’s earth-centric model to 1687, ending the historical age with Newton’s laws of motion and gravity. Many call out Descartes’ Cogito Ergo Sum in 1637 as the beginning of the Enlightenment, and the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 as the end. Today’s topic, the Industrial Revolution, especially in England, is tied to the social changes occurring as science, technology and a growing capitalist class emerged unlike anytime before in human history, from about 1780 to 1840.

There is no immediate causal relationship between the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Gramsci believed the Enlightenment was the moment in history when the capitalist intellectuals built solidarity and laid the foundation for a successful capitalist revolution. The capitalist class dethroned the aristocracy throughout Europe as the ruling class, and then stretched out to all ends of the earth. Concluding the Industrial Revolution and the coming to power of the capitalist class as the ruling class was the consequence of all of this is reasonable.

The actual events of history are not so transparent, but I find Gramsci’s narrative to be quite plausible. He returns to it over and over throughout his writings, so we will spend a lot more time on it in the future. Today we will discuss the economic significance of the Industrial Revolution, and then spend some time critiquing the Enlightenment from the perspective of class analysis, and then talk about how socialism seeks to overcome capitalism’s failed attempt to fulfill the promises of the Enlightenment.

Part III

- [ ] Religious tolerance, separation of church and state

- [ ] Individual freedom and Liberalism

- [ ] United States, the Democratic Experiment

Last time we talked about the Enlightenment in preparation for an episode in which we’ll cover Gramsci’s rejection of a working class brand of anti-intellectualism. Having a familiarity with the Enlightenment will not only provide background for understanding working class anti-intellectualism, it will provide context to many other topics we will cover in the future, including the French Revolution and cultural hegemony.

Last week we specifically discussed the Scientific Revolution as a key ingredient of the Enlightenment. Today we’re going to discuss philosophy’s response to the problems created by the Scientific Revolution. In the next episode we will begin to discuss the cultural impacts of the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment, Part II

- [ ] Philosophy’s accounting for sciences shared reality, truth and reason

At the end of the last episode I said we would be discussing Gramsci’s response to strands of anti-intellectualism among the working class. I realized we need a little context to understand the significance of their anti-intellectualism, in part as a rejection of intellectuals of the capitalist class, and more specifically, intellectuals of the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment was not exclusively nor explicitly capitalist, but after describing the Enlightenment, I will attempt to draw the connection between the Enlightenment and capitalism, a connection that Gramsci took for granted. I will also argue that capitalism failed to fulfill the promises of the Enlightenment, and socialism is a renewed attempt to truly fulfill its promises.

There is no consensus about the boundaries of the Enlightenment, though there is agreement about the ideas at the center of the movement. I will prioritizes the philosophical ideas driving it. I see philosophy as the discipline struggling to solve the problems created by each of the other disciplines that defined the Enlightenment: the scientific revolution and its challenges to Christianity, the political debates arising out of growing capitalist and working classes, and the complex interdependent international economies that emerged as a consequence.

We will spend at least two episodes on the Enlightenment.

Part I

- [ ] Scientific Revolution

The Light Which Went Out

Published: November 20, 1915

In Il Grido del Popolo

I will read a little from a translation of it in Pedro Cavalcanti and Paul Piccone’s History, Philosophy and Culture in the Young Gramsci.

At the death of an Italian literary critic Gramsci pays his respect by acknowledging his skill of writing about poetry that was accessible to the uninitiated, the uneducated. In this episode we will discuss:

- [ ] Catholic Scholasticism in the Middle Ages vs. St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Movement as a metaphor for…

- [ ] …The working class and the gatekeepers that keep them from being able to appreciate high culture

#catholicism

#dante

#workingclassculture

October 31, 1914

Il Grido del Popolo

In this episode I’ll finally cover one of Gramsci’s essays, one of the first essays Gramsci published. In it he defends Mussolini, the same Benito Mussolini that invented Fascism. Before inventing Fascism Mussolini was a respected Marxist. As World War I was heating up Mussolini protested the war, but only a few months later his opposition to the war was softening. He was beginning to appeal to Italian nationalist sentiments. Many criticized Mussolini’s softer position, but Gramsci defended it.

This episode will also hit on a few other topics. We will discuss

- [ ] Red Week, a week of major labor upheaval in Italy just before the war

- [ ] World War I

- [ ] The Second International, an international socialist organization

- [ ] Mussolini

- [ ] And Angelo Tasca

#fascism #worldwari #nationalism #internationalism #roleoftheparty #therevolution #hegemony #solidarity #secondinternational

http://www.internationalgramscisociety.org/resources/pre-prison-index/index.html

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/07/second-international-bernstein-rosa-luxemburg-unions-world-war

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/pre-war_socialist_pacifism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Week_(Italy)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_unification

http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm

Many future episodes presuppose a grasp of some basic socialist theory, including the centrality of the working class, Marx’s concept of “Internal Contradiction”, trade unions, strikes, and general strikes.

Employee-Owned Companies

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_employee-owned_companies

The General Strike

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_strike

NOTE: this episode is pretty rough. I plan on releasing a new recording of this episode eventually. This episode is a brief biography about a peasant that became an influential writer for socialist newspapers, then helped organize a split from the Italian Socialist Party to form the Communist Party of Italy, became a member of parliament, was arrested by the Fascists, and wrote some of philosophy’s most interesting cultural analysis from prison, where he spent the rest of his short life.