Genesis and Structure of Society

Genesis and Structure of Society, Giovanni Gentile’s last work, was based on a university course and published posthumously in 1946. Between August and September 1943, Gentile proposed it as a means of providing comfort during a period of profound personal and national distress. In addition to fulfilling a special “civic duty” to the “future Italy” to which he had dedicated his life, the work was also intended as a contribution to the broader discourse on the nation’s future. It represents an extension of themes that Gentile had previously addressed, including the relationship between the individual and society, the idea of the State as an inalienable precondition of social life, the primacy of ethics in overcoming particularity, and the importance of human character formation as one of the fundamental tasks of education. But this work is also a significant intellectual testament, introducing original ideas such as the rejection of economics as a mere utilitarian or individualistic mechanism, the affirmation of religion as an intrinsic aspect of moral conduct rather than an imposition, and the advocacy of a “humanism of labor” that, in contrast to the materialistic standpoint, elevates labor as the supreme expression of the human spirit.