Philosophy and Politics in Ugo Spirito. The utopia of hierarchical communism

Abstract

his article describes and analyses the political and social Utopia of the Italian philosopher, Ugo Spirito [1896-1979], of hierarchical communism. This was a project gestation throughout the nineteen-thirties, under the auspices of the neo-Hegelian idealism of Giovanni Gentile [1875-1944] and within the revolutionary ideal of fascism. It was projected, in a manner that was not perhaps as paradoxical as it may appear, into a scientific communism that gave equal value to the Soviet experience and Mao-ist influences. “conversion” of Spirito, far from being a simple intellectual contradiction or an opportunist adaptation, may be the exponent of a series of deep overlaps in doctrines of the extreme manifestations of the great social ideologisation that ran through much of the history of the 20th century, and not just a pragmatic or strategic development.