{{Short description|Italian Marxist theoretician and philosopher (1843–1904)}} {{Distinguish|Arturo Labriola}} {{Infobox philosopher |region = [[Western philosophy]] |era = [[19th-century philosophy]] |image = Antonio Labriola.jpg |caption = Antonio Labriola |name = Antonio Labriola |birth_date = {{birth date|1843|07|02|df=y}} |birth_place = [[Cassino, Italy|Cassino]], [[Papal States]] |death_date = {{death date and age|1904|02|12|1843|07|02|df=y}} |death_place = [[Rome]], [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Kingdom of Italy]] |family = [[Teresa Labriola]] (daughter) |alma_mater = [[University of Naples Federico II]] |school_tradition = [[Marxism]] |main_interests = |notable_ideas = [[Marxist]] theory as a theory [[critical theory|critical]] of [[ideology]]<br>Marxism as a philosophy of [[Praxis (process)|praxis]] |birth_name=Antonio Maria Marziale Labriòla}} '''Antonio Labriola''' ({{IPA|it|anˈtɔːnjo labriˈɔːla|lang}}; 2 July 1843&nbsp;– 12 February 1904) was an Italian [[Theoretician (Marxism)|Marxist theoretician]] and [[philosopher]]. Although an academic philosopher and never an active member of any [[Marxist]] political party, his thought exerted influence on many political theorists in Italy during the early 20th century, including the founder of the [[Italian Liberal Party (1943)|Italian Liberal Party]], [[Benedetto Croce]], as well as the leaders of the [[Italian Communist Party]], [[Antonio Gramsci]] and [[Amadeo Bordiga]]. He also influenced the Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician [[Leon Trotsky]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |author-link=Leon Trotsky |title=My Life |page=91 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/1930-lif.pdf | accessdate=March 23, 2020}}</ref>

==Biography== Labriola was born in [[Cassino, Italy|Cassino]] (then in the [[Papal States]]), the son of a schoolteacher. In 1861, he entered the [[University of Naples]]. Upon graduating, he remained in [[Naples]] and became a schoolteacher. During this period, he pursued an interest in philosophy, [[history]] and [[ethnography]]. The early 1870s saw Labriola take up [[journalism]], and his writings from this time expressed [[Liberalism|liberal]] and [[Anti-clericalism|anticlerical]] views.

In 1874, Labriola was appointed as a [[professor]] in [[Rome]], where he would spend the rest of his life teaching, writing, and debating. Although he had been critical of liberalism since 1873, his move towards [[Marxism]] was gradual, and he did not explicitly express a [[Socialism|socialist]] viewpoint until 1889. He died in Rome on 2 February 1904.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.cultureducazione.it/antoniolabriola/cartearchivio.htm |title=Antonio Labriola e la sua Università |date=10 December 2006 }}</ref>

==Philosophical work== Heavily influenced by [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] and [[Johann Friedrich Herbart]], Labriola's approach to Marxist theory was more open-ended than that of theorists such as [[Karl Kautsky]]. He saw Marxism not as a final, self-sufficient schematisation of history, but rather as a collection of pointers to the understanding of human affairs.

These pointers needed to be somewhat imprecise if Marxism was to take into account the complicated social processes and variety of forces at work in history. Marxist theory was to be understood as a theory [[critical theory|critical]] of [[ideology]],<ref>Jan Rehmann, ''Theories of Ideology: The Powers of Alienation and Subjection'', BRILL, 2013, p. 62.</ref> in that it sees no truths as everlasting, and was ready to drop its own ideas if experience should so dictate. His description of Marxism as a "philosophy of [[Praxis (process)|praxis]]" would appear again in Gramsci's ''[[Prison Notebooks]]''.<ref name=Petrovic>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Petrovic |first=Gajo| author-link=Gajo Petrovic |editor1-last=Bottomore |editor1-first=Tom |editor1-link=Tom Bottomore |editor2-last=Harris |editor2-first=Laurence | editor3-last=Kiernan |editor3-first=V.G. | editor3-link=V. G. Kiernan | editor4-last=Miliband |editor4-first=Ralph |editor4-link=Ralph Miliband |encyclopedia=The Dictionary of Marxist Thought |title=Praxis | date=1991 | edition= Second | publisher=Blackwell Publishers Ltd. | isbn=0-631-16481-2 | pages=438}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Wikiquote}} * [http://www.marxists.org/archive/labriola/index.htm ''Antonio Labriola Archive''] at [[Marxists Internet Archive]] * {{Gutenberg author |id=35957| name=Antonio Labriola}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Antonio Labriola}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Labriola, Antonio}} [[Category:1843 births]] [[Category:1904 deaths]] [[Category:People from Cassino]] [[Category:Italian Marxists]] [[Category:Italian socialists]] [[Category:Marxist theorists]] [[Category:University of Naples Federico II alumni]] [[Category:Burials at the Protestant Cemetery, Rome]] [[Category:19th-century Italian philosophers]] [[Category:Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome]]