Papini, Giovanni (1881–1956)

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PAPINI, GIOVANNI
(1881–1956)

Giovanni Papini, an Italian pragmatist philosopher and literary figure, was born in Florence into a family of modest means and had no formal education. Papini described himself in his Un uomo finito (Florence, 1913; translated by Virginia Page as Failure; Un Uomo Finito, New York, 1924), a book that was frankly and painfully biographical, as self-taught, urged on by an insatiable curiosity and a burning desire to investigate the various forms of knowledge. He quickly made a name for himself in Italian culture at the beginning of the twentieth century with his attack on the then prevailing positivist philosophy of Roberto Ardigò and his support of nationalistic tendencies and opposition to the ideals of democracy. He became a close friend of Giuseppe Prezzolini and other young writers who advocated doing away with the old oligarchies and giving a new impetus to the spiritual life of the country. The fruit of this collaboration was the birth in 1903 of Leonardo, a nonconformist review that published the most important contemporary thinkers. They chose Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, William James, and F. C. S. Schiller as their exemplars and leaders, but the interests of the Leonardo group embraced the avant-garde currents in art and literature as well.

In his writings, later gathered together in a book titled Pragmatismo (Milan, 1913), Papini defined the essential aspects of his thought. His is a kind of magic pragmatism, markedly different from the logical and scientific pragmatism of C. S. Peirce. This pragmatism rejects the positivists' agnosticism concerning issues that go beyond experience; that metaphysical problems lack meaning does not indicate a lack in our intellectual capabilities but rather how very human the nature of knowing is. Instead of striving for definitive explanations in the manner of the traditional philosophies, the pragmatist is concerned with the methods and instruments that aid in defining the various forms of knowledge and activity. He does not believe in absolute principles or immutable truths; neither does he stop at mere description and generalization of the facts of experience. His aim is to develop laws and predictions, with the sole purpose of increasing the power of man over nature. No metaphysical hypothesis, observed Papini, is more valuable than another, and none can be recognized as true. On the contrary, the pragmatist viewpoint is one of maximum freedom and advocates a plurality of attitudes. Papini's celebrated definition of pragmatism was praised and quoted by William James:

Pragmatism is a corridor theory, a corridor of a great hotel where there are 100 doors that open onto 100 rooms. In one there is a faldstool and a kneeling man who wants to regain his faith, in another a writing-desk and a man who wants to kill every metaphysic, in a third a laboratory and a man who wants to find new vantage points on the future. (Pragmatismo, p. 82)

Papini's Leonardo period, with neo-Hegelians such as Benedetto Croce and Giovanni Gentile aiding the attack on positivism, terminated in 1906. But this was only the beginning of a painful intellectual journey in which Papini sought, without success, to give form and coherence to his thought. He participated in the battle of ideas of La voce, directed by his friend Prezzolini; then he broke away and in 1911, in collaboration with Giovanni Amendola, directed a review with a strong moral bent, L'anima ; and finally he founded Lacerba, an avant-garde journal violently opposed to the prevailing order of things. In the meantime, his literary output was enriched by numerous works, including Il crepuscolo dei filosofi (The twilight of the philosophers; Milan, 1906), La cultura italiana (Florence, 1906), written in collaboration with Prezzolini, and L'altra metà (The other half; Ancona, 1912). In addition to these books, a great number of articles testify to his zeal and his cultural interests. In this period Papini drew further away from the idealism gaining popularity in Italy, intensified his dissent with the school of Croce, and supported the futurist movement in accordance with his rebellion against traditional aesthetic rules.

Papini strongly favored Italian intervention in World War I because he saw the war as a decisive conflict between the old and the new. However, the war led him to a reassessment of Christian values and to embrace the works of the fathers of the church, and in particular those of St. Augustine. He regarded Augustine, to whom he devoted a book (S. Agustino, Florence, 1929), as a defender of the faith, an uncompromising polemicist, and an unsurpassable model of humanity reaching out toward the divine. Papini's activity did not diminish after his religious "conversion," but gradually became less and less concerned with philosophical matters, and concentrated instead on literary and scholarly subjects. Stricken by a disease that deprived him almost completely of the use of his senses but left his mind as active as ever, Papini bore up bravely until his death.

Bibliography

See Michele Federico Sciacca, Il secolo XX, 2nd ed. (Milan, 1947), Vol. I, pp. 22–25; Eugenio Garin, Cronache di filosofia (Bari: G. Laterza, 1955); Antonio Santucci, Il Pragmatismo in Italia (Bologna: Mulino, 1963).

Antonio Santucci (1967)

Translated by Robert M. Connolly

Encyclopedia of Philosophy