This text, "La Filosofia dell'Arte" by Giovanni Gentile (G.G.

), is a dense philosophical treatise on

aesthetics, rooted in his "actual idealism." It argues that art is not a mere product or object, but a
fundamental, inactual (or transcendental) moment of the spirit's self-creating activity, specifically
identified with "sentimento" (feeling/sentiment).
Here's a detailed and thorough summary:
PREFAZIONE (Preface)
• First Edition (1931, written 1930): Originates from 1927-28 university lectures but reflects
over 20 years of thought on aesthetics. It's a philosophical work, not for superficial critics.
Gentile acknowledges his philosophy evolves, and this work deepens his entire system.
• Second Edition (1943): Notes the book's diffusion (including a compendium and German
translation). It was intended as Philosophy, not just Aesthetics. He expresses satisfaction with
the work's enduring quality and its impact. Revisions are minor, aimed at clarity and correcting
small errors.
INTRODUZIONE: IL PROBLEMA DELL’ARTE (Introduction: The Problem of Art)
I. L’UMANITÀ DELL’ARTE (The Humanity of Art)
1. Curiosity and Problem: The problem of art's nature is not an invention of philosophers but
arises spontaneously in all humans. Philosophical problems are necessary, not accidental
curiosities. Science itself, when deeply pursued, becomes philosophical. The "pure scientist"
(e.g., "purus mathematicus") is not a full human if they lack this philosophical dimension.
2. Universality of Art: Art is intrinsic to humanity, not external. Everyone possesses artistic
aptitude (to create, perceive, appreciate) in some form, from basic expression (speech) to
appreciating complex works. Even utilitarian objects become adorned. Art is a spiritual embrace
of the material, elevating it. It provides catharsis and serenity from infancy. The shared
experience of art (e.g., in a theatre) reveals a common "human soul" capable of transcending
time and place. Man is "naturally artist."
3. Necessity of the Problem of Art: What is in consciousness must become an object of
consciousness. Since art is integral to human spiritual life, humans are naturally led to reflect on
it. This common, unformulated aesthetic consciousness is the touchstone for philosophical
theories of art, similar to moral sense. This "sense" is already a form of thought.
4. The Concept of Problem: A problem is an obstacle thought must overcome to live/exist.
Thought is self-affirming and reacts against limits. The object of thought is its eternal problem.
Knowing an object means assimilating it, making it internal to thought. This assimilation
resolves the discomfort of the unknown. The fundamental questions are "Does it exist?" (C’è?)
and "What is it?" (Che cos’è?). Ultimately, a problem is solved when the object is seen as
concept, specifically "autoconcetto" (self-concept), where thought produces itself.
5. Necessity of the Ideal Deduction of Art: Many avoid the "why" of art, focusing only on
"what" it is. But to truly understand its essence, one must also understand its origin/necessity
 within the spirit. This means addressing existence, essence, and the "why" (its conceptual place
in the spirit).
II. IL PROBLEMA EMPIRICO (The Empirical Problem)
1. Empirical Knowledge and Empiricism: Empirical knowledge of art starts from an empirical
concept. All science, until it becomes philosophy, is empirical, assuming an external object.
Empiricism is the philosophy that all knowledge is of this kind. Even past spiritual life becomes
"nature" when studied empirically.
2. Fact and Concept; Apprehension and Interpretation: Empiricists assume art's existence as a
"fact" beyond discussion. However, apprehension of a fact is inseparable from its interpretation
(concept). The "what" and "how" (existence and essence) are ideally distinct but concretely
unified. There's no uninterpreted fact.
3. Immediacy of Knowledge as Knowledge of Fact: Empiricists argue the concept refers to the
fact, not vice-versa. The fact, in its immediacy, grounds interpretation. This leads to the idea
that thought is immediate, like apprehension. But this "immediate truth" is problematic and can
lead to intellectual paralysis.
4. Impossibility of Posing the Problem of Art from an Empirical Point of View: Empiricism is
naturalism, viewing reality (including spirit) as conditioned by antecedents. This negates spirit's
freedom and creativity, which are most evident in art. Art is seen as a realm of free creation. If
spirit is free, it cannot be understood naturalistically. Empiricism, by its logic, makes a spiritual
reality like art absurd.
5. Empiricism of a Pseudo-Idealistic Aesthetics (Critique of Croce): Gentile critiques
Benedetto Croce's aesthetics. Croce starts by stating "Knowledge has two forms: intuitive or
logical," and identifies intuitive knowledge with the aesthetic/artistic fact. Gentile argues this is
an empirical starting point, assuming these "facts" without philosophical deduction. Croce's
"intuition" is presented as a given fact, not a concept. This, Gentile claims, makes Croce's
idealism a "pseudo-idealism" or an "intellectualistic" one, where philosophy becomes a
methodology external to the reality it studies, rather than reality thinking itself. Croce's
aesthetic, for Gentile, describes but doesn't ground art, leaving its existence presupposed and
vulnerable.
III. IL PROBLEMA FILOSOFICO (The Philosophical Problem)
1. Distinction and Unity of the Forms of Spirit: Art's problem must be solved within philosophy.
Philosophy isn't a separate high-level discipline but immanent in all spiritual life. Forms of
spirit (art, religion, science, philosophy) are ideally distinct but concretely unified. The principle
is unity, from which diverse forms arise.
2. The Empirical Distinction of Theory from Practice: The common distinction between
thinking (theory) and doing (practice) is flawed. If theory depends on something external, spirit
is conditioned and not free. "Doing" (e.g., moral action) is self-production; the product is the
spirit itself. Knowing is also self-production, a change in the spirit's being.
 3. Thought as Thinking Act (Pensiero come atto pensante): The indubitable starting point is
"we think." This thinking is not a fact about thought but the act of thinking itself, which
produces itself. It's "atto" (act), not "fatto" (fact). This act is the "pensiero in atto" (thought in
act), not a thought-object.
4. Originality of Absolute Thought: This thinking act is not a psychological faculty developing
in stages. It's the whole spirit, always possessing sensation (which is conscious), consciousness
(which implies self-consciousness: "I" aware of "me" as distinct from an object), and thus,
activity. Self-consciousness is activity aware of itself. This act is knowing and willing.
5. Abstractness of any Ideal Reconstruction of the Forms of Spirit: The ideal series of spiritual
forms (e.g., art, religion, philosophy) concerns the "logo astratto" (abstract logic), not the "logo
concreto" (concrete logic of self-consciousness in motion, i.e., history). Philosophy appears last
in an ideal series because it judges/comprehends all other forms.
6. Spirit as Actual Thought and the Body: Thought exists because it thinks; it's concrete reality.
This "I" that thinks is not an abstract soul but the concrete self, which includes the body. The
body is the "obiectum mentis" (Spinoza, Rosmini), the immediate object of self-consciousness,
felt from within. The soul continuously creates its body. Ultimately, the body is the universe, as
the spiritualization of nature.
7. Infinity of Spirit: Freedom implies infinity. Spirit overcomes limits. This is the essence of
thinking and living. The "I" that thinks is infinite, not the empirical individual. All human
endeavor (e.g., developing tools, agriculture, society) is the spirit extending its dominion,
infinitizing itself.
8. The Infinite Process of the Spirit's Infinity: The limit is not encountered externally but
posited internally by thought itself, only to be overcome in the dialectic of self-consciousness
(Subject -> Object -> Synthesis of Subject-Object). This is an eternal, ongoing act. The spirit's
eternity is the eternity of its becoming.
PARTE PRIMA: ATTUALITÀ DELL’ARTE (Part One: Actuality of Art)
I. L’ESISTENZA DELL’ARTE (The Existence of Art)
1. Existence and Thought: Thought's point of departure is the existent. Thought thinks itself; its
object is internal to it.
2. Art as Existent: Art must exist to be thought. We initially identify art with specific works. But
this "concept" is vague.
3. Difficulty of Grasping Art in its Existence: The artwork is not the physical object (book,
canvas) nor a mere memory. A poem exists truly only in its reading. Language itself is not static
but lives in the speaker/writer and the specific work. A work is "one word," an indivisible
whole.
4. Subjectivity of Art's Historical Existence: The artwork, though from the past, becomes
present in the act of experiencing it. Chronological distance vanishes. The artwork "relives" in
the perceiver.
 5. Prejudices against Historical Subjectivism: This doesn't mean arbitrary subjectivism.
Historical reality is constructed by thought, but with reasons and based on documents. The
"objectivity" of history is internal to thought.
6. History, Art, Dream: Art, like a dream, is a self-enclosed world, discontinuous with ordinary
waking reality. For the artist creating, art is life itself, not yet "art" as an object of reflection.
7. Dream and Waking: Kant saw the substantial identity of dream and waking experience in
themselves. The difference arises from the context of total experience: waking judges the dream,
not vice-versa. Experience is a construction by thought.
8. Criticism and Overcoming of Dream Experience: Thought (waking) contains and judges the
dream. The dream lacks the totality of the object found in waking experience.
9. Critique of the Theory of Art's Unconsciousness: Art, like dream, cannot be known as art
from within its own immediate experience. It becomes "art" only when it's the object of a
thought (criticism, philosophy) that is not art. Art's "unconsciousness" is relative: it lacks
reflective self-awareness.
10.Romanticism and Classicism: Pure Romanticism (all feeling) and pure Classicism (all
rule/reflection) are abstractions. True art synthesizes both. Criticism (reflection) is immanent in
art. "Pure art" is an inactual, ideal residue when thought/criticism is ideally subtracted.
II. LA FORMA (Form)
1. The Artistic Principle in every Work of Art: Art is in the spirit, specifically in the spirit of the
reader/perceiver, but one must ideally strip away the actual form of thought (reflection,
judgment) to reach the core of "pure art."
2. The "I" in the Form of Subject: The subject is not simply opposed to the object but is the "I"
in its subjective form, a transcendental principle.
3. Meaning of the Distinction between Art and Thought: Art is the subjective moment of spirit.
The "form" of art is the "I" as pure subject. This is "sentimento." This doesn't mean art is
everything and nothing. The distinction is "transversal" (like Kant's intuition/concept), not a
perpendicular division. Art is a moment within the actual unity of thought.
4. Inactuality of Pure Art: Pure art (pure subjectivity/feeling) is inactual. Actual art is always
thought permeated by this artistic principle. The "soul" of the artwork is this feeling.
5. False Distinctions between Art and Thought:
• Particular (art) vs. Universal (science): False. Art has universality.
• Fantasy vs. Intellect: False. Spirit is one. "Fantasy" is the inactual subjective form.
• Inexistent (fantasy) vs. Existent (thought): False. All are constructions of spirit.
• Corporeal (fantasy) vs. Incorporeal (thought): False. "Corporeality" is of the "I."
 6. The Content of Art: Content is thought (representation + reflection). Art is the form this matter
assumes. Abstract content (what the artist started with) is an antecedent. Concrete content
emerges with the artwork. The initial "spark" (macchia) is already art, form-content unity.
7. The Form of Art: Form is what remains when content (the "thought") is ideally subtracted. It's
the "soul" of thought, not thought itself. It's this pure, inactual subjectivity.
8. Beauty as Value: Beauty is the value of this artistic form (feeling). Value implies freedom,
spiritual activity. This makes beauty of "nature" (as mere mechanism) problematic.
III. DIALETTICA DELLA FORMA (Dialectic of Form)
1. Immediacy and Freedom of Aesthetic Form: Art seems immediate ("poeta nascitur"), but
freedom implies mediation. Intuition is often cited for art's immediacy.
2. Intuition and Idealism: Intuitionism in philosophy is often tied to realism (object pre-exists
subject). Modern idealism, especially Gentile's actualism, rejects any "given" or unmediated
element. Spirit is dialectical.
3. Dialectic and the Overcoming of Immediacy: All that is spiritual becomes. Being = non-
being, thus becoming. This is the dialectic. True dialectic is in thought itself realizing self-
consciousness.
4. The Dialectic of Self-Consciousness (Autocoscienza): Self-consciousness is an act, not a
substance. It's thought thinking itself. Subject posits object, negating its own immediacy, and
vice-versa. Unity is in the synthesis of these opposites.
5. The Dialectical Character of Aesthetic Form: Aesthetic form (subjectivity/feeling) is not
static. It's the thesis containing its own antithesis (objectivity) and drive towards synthesis
(thought). The dialectic is not within pure art but is the dialectic of the whole spirit operating
through art.
6. Meaning of Art's Immediacy: Art's immediacy is not absolute. "Concrete immediacy"
includes mediation. Art (feeling) is animated by the dialectical energy of self-consciousness.
The artist self-monitors, reflecting even in inspiration.
IV. IL SENTIMENTO (Feeling/Sentiment)
1. What is Meant by Feeling: This subjectivity, immediate yet dialectical, is "sentimento" in a
gnoseological, philosophical sense.
2. Concept of Feeling in Greek Philosophy: Greeks generally devalued feeling as inferior, tied to
the senses and particularity, an obstacle to reason.
3. Importance of Feeling in Christianity: Christianity introduced concepts like love, faith, hope
– subjective elements crucial for spiritual life, suggesting an inner source of truth.
4. Feeling in Modern Philosophy up to Kant: Leibniz (monad) and English moral sense
philosophers (Shaftesbury) began valuing subjectivity. Kant distinguished disinterested pleasure
(aesthetic/moral) from interested pleasure.
 5. The Psychological Concept of Feeling and its Critique: Psychology sees feeling as a
subjective state (pleasure/pain) caused by sensation. This is an empirical view, treating feeling
as a received fact. Gentile argues feeling must be an active, intrinsic part of consciousness.
6. Feeling and its Dialectic: Feeling is often seen as ineffable, lost when analyzed. But
philosophy itself is passionate. Feeling is the subject itself, prior to distinctions. Pleasure and
pain are its fundamental, dialectically related modes. True pleasure is overcoming pain.
7. Pleasure and Pain: Pleasure is being, life-affirmation; pain is non-being, life-negation. Living
is thinking. The act of thinking, of affirming oneself, is joy.
8. Feeling and Kant's Transcendental "I": Gentile's "sentimento" is analogous but not identical
to Kant's transcendental apperception. Kant's "I" is immediate self-consciousness, a
presupposition. Gentile's "sentimento" is the principle from which self-consciousness (thought)
dialectically arises. Gentile's "experience" is spirit experiencing itself, with no external "given."
9. Comparison with Rosmini's "Fundamental Feeling": Rosmini's "sentimento fondamentale"
is the soul's sense of the body, linking it to reality. For Gentile, "sentimento" is this root of the
"I," the basis of all experience and personality.
10.Comparison with Gioberti's Concept of the Existent: Gioberti's "L'Ente crea l'esistente"
(Being creates the existent) and "l'esistente ritorna all'Ente" (the existent returns to Being)
emphasizes the role of the existing subject in knowing and thus "recreating" Being. The subject
is the principle of reality.
V. L’AMORE E LA PAROLA (Love and the Word)
1. Not Expression of Feeling, but Feeling: Art is not the expression of feeling, but feeling itself.
Critiques Croce's view of art as "theoretical form of feeling" as dualistic. Art is feeling's own
activity.
2. Feeling as Unity and Infinity of the Work of Art: Feeling is one and indivisible. The artwork
is a self-contained, infinite world because the feeling animating it is infinite.
3. Which Feeling is Infinite: The infinity of feeling is not of the particular individual, but of
"Man," the universal human spirit.
4. Love: This fundamental, unitive feeling is "love"—the spiritual force that connects, the desire
for being. It's the root of beauty.
5. The History of Feeling: Feeling develops through the dialectic of spirit (thought and will). It's
the history of the whole spirit. Love resolves oppositions by unifying the subject with the
"other."
6. From Self-Love to Love of God: Love of self (as infinite) is love of God/All. Love allows
spirit to overcome alienation and feel at home in the world.
7. Universality of the Beautiful and Alleged Limits of Art: All spirit is art under the aspect of
art. The distinctions between poetry/prose, art/science are technical, not essential. Dante and
Galileo both express the human spirit.
 8. All Art in as much as it is Art: Differences are between artist and artist, not artist and non-
artist, based on the quality of feeling. The perceived difference between "art" (imagination) and
"science" (truth) is based on old dualisms. True, deep thought is also passionate and "sensible"
(in Vico's sense).
9. Art as Initial Form of Spirit: Art (feeling) is the starting point of spirit (Vico, Herder). It's
more apparent in "infancy" before reflection fully develops, but it's always present.
10.The Body as Expression of the Soul, and the Word: The body is the soul's expression.
Thinking is impossible without words. The "word" is thought embodied. This "nature" where
thought manifests is our own body/feeling. Feeling is the universal language. Language is
organism: thought in its multiplicity, feeling in its unity.
PARTE SECONDA: GLI ATTRIBUTI DELL’ARTE (Part Two: The Attributes of Art)
I. L’ARTE, LE ARTI E LA BELLA NATURA (Art, The Arts, and Beautiful Nature)
1. Unity and Multiplicity of Language, and Accent: Language is circular: unity (feeling) ->
multiplicity (words/discourse) -> unity (comprehension). Accent conveys feeling.
2. Technique: Technique (e.g., anatomy for a painter, metrics for a poet) is thought, knowledge,
learned. "Pseudotechnique" is mistaking technique for art.
3. Antecedents of Art and Language as Technique: The artist's body, universal nature, acquired
knowledge, language – all are antecedents fused into the artist's present feeling.
4. Alleged Exteriorization of the Work of Art: Art is not "exteriorizing" an internal phantom.
Creation is an internal process of the subject forming itself in relation to "nature" (which is
internal).
5. Content as Technique: Content (the specific thoughts, story, ideas) is also an antecedent, part
of the "technique" absorbed by feeling.
6. Multiplicity of Art as Technique; and Literary Genres: The "arts" (painting, poetry, etc.) are
distinguished by their techniques. Lessing's limits are valid for technique. Literary genres are
also technical distinctions. The true artwork transcends these.
7. Lyric, Poetry, Music: Art has been identified with lyricism (as expression of feeling), or music
(as primordial song). Gentile sees all these as specific techniques. The essence is the underlying
feeling.
8. Literary Genres and Pseudoconcepts: Critiques the idea that genres are "pseudoconcepts."
For Gentile, all concepts (including genres) are historical formations of thought, functioning as
categories for current thought.
9. The Concept of Nature and the Problem of its Beauty: "Nature" for the idealist is not dead
matter but spirit's body, infinite feeling.
10.Beautiful Nature: Nature is beautiful in its totality/infinity, its inner soul, not in isolated parts.
The artist feels and expresses this immanent life of nature.
II. GENIO, GUSTO, CRITICA (Genius, Taste, Criticism)
1. Genius: Creative power, associated with poets. Makes the new, expands the human world.
2. Genius is Not Thought: Genius is distinct from intelligence/ingenuity. It's the individual's
primordial subjective energy, linked to feeling. It's "natural" in Gentile's spiritual sense of
nature.
3. Genius is Nature: Genius is the creative force of nature (spirit) itself. It's not imitation
(mimesis) but original creation.
4. Ingenuity (Ingegno): Analytical, abstract thought, technical skill without the profound creative
depth of genius. Intellect without deep feeling.
5. Taste: Faculty for perceiving beauty. Often identified with genius. For Gentile, taste is genius in
its dialectical self-awareness, distinguishing beauty from non-beauty within feeling.
6. Criticism and Translating: Criticism is taste + thought/philosophy/history. It "discovers" art in
the work. Understanding an artwork (especially from another time/language) is a form of
"translation." The original creation is an "auto-translation." Good translation is re-creation.
7. The Three Moments of Criticism:
• Overcoming abstract content (philological, historical study).
• Taste (entering the artist's feeling).
• Reconstructing concrete content (re-creating the work animated by this feeling).
8. Subjectivity and Objectivity of Critical Reconstruction: Critical reconstruction is a new
creation. The artwork's actual existence is in the critic's (or perceiver's) thought. This isn't
arbitrary; it's grounded in the "document" (the physical work) and the internal logic of thought.
9. The History of Art: Is immanent in criticism. It's not just a sequence of individual works. Art is
a moment of the spirit's synthesis; its history is part of the history of thought/philosophy.
III. ARTE LIBERATRICE (Liberating Art)
1. Delight and Defect of Art: Aristotle's catharsis and the classic idea of "diletto" (delight) in
poetry. Gentile reinterprets "diletto" as the pleasure inherent in spiritual activity, i.e., feeling.
Mystics opposed art for its subjectivity, seeing it as turning from God (objective reality).
2. Catharsis: Artistic catharsis is liberation from pain: pain within the artwork (overcoming
obstacles in creation) and pain of life. Creating art is itself a struggle, a "pain" of thought,
overcome in the joy of the final feeling.
3. The Consolation of Art: Art is a refuge from life's deterministic aspects and the constant effort
of thought. It allows the subject to feel its infinity and freedom (like a dream, but a joyful,
empowering one).
 4. Universality of Art's Cathartic Function: This function is present in all spiritual activity, not
just "artworks." All life is a synthesis of subject and object, and the subjective moment
(art/feeling) is always present, providing an underlying joy.
5. Consoling Religion: Religion also consoles. Art and Religion are opposed moments (subjective
vs. objective). Religious art is art because the religious "object" (God) has been fused into the
artist's feeling. The source of joy is always art (feeling).
IV. ARTE E MORALE (Art and Morality)
1. The Problem: The relation of art to morality is a perennial, passionate debate.
2. Moral Action: True "practical form" of spirit is moral. All spirit is practical (action). True
action involves the whole person and their world.
3. Difficulties from Distinguishing Intellect and Will: Intellectualism (e.g., Rosmini's theoretical
vs. practical judgments) struggles to bridge knowing and doing without sacrificing either
objectivity or the subject's freedom.
4. Abstract Logo and Concrete Logo: Abstract logo (objectified thought) vs. concrete logo
(thought as self-consciousness). The concrete logo unites intellect and will; knowing is doing.
5. Action: The subject actualizing itself as concrete logo is action. Art is present in all true action.
6. Moral Life: Overcoming abstract logo/intellectualism is to enter the actuality of spirit where
theory and practice are one. This is philosophizing in its concrete sense. Morality is this
concrete, responsible philosophizing.
7. The Practical Character of Art: "Art for art's sake" is true: art has an immanent end, not
external utility. But art is not amoral. The artist is a free, responsible subject. The artist's moral
character (their education, worldview) informs the "content" of their feeling.
8. The Morality of Art: Art as pure feeling is beyond conventional morality. But as it actualizes
in a work, it becomes the expression of a subject who has a moral dimension. The "seriousness"
of art is a moral quality. False art is morally false (insincere, superficial).
9. Art as Education of Humankind: True art's universality and depth of feeling make it
educative, fostering love (basis of morality) and uniting humanity.
10.The National Character of Art: Art is national as its "antecedents" (language, culture) are
national, shaping the artist's subjectivity. Also, art contributes to national consciousness.
V. ARTE IMMORTALE (Immortal Art)
1. The Concept of Immortal Life: Faith in immortality stems from the spirit's need for
unconditioned, free thought. Naive immortality (endless duration) is problematic.
2. Thought that is Immortal: The "thinking act" itself is eternal, not any particular thought-
object. Philosophy/history constantly renews itself; the act of philosophizing/historicizing is
perennial.
 3. The Immortality of Art:
• Each artwork is immortal because its core feeling is of the universal, infinite human
spirit.
• Art as a moment of spiritual synthesis is immortal.
• The work is immortal in its "soul" (feeling), not its material content/technique. "Jupiter
dies, the poet's hymn remains" is true if the hymn is re-sung, its feeling re-lived.
4. Hegelian Doctrine (and its misinterpretation): Hegel's "death of art" (superseded by
philosophy) refers to the "logo astratto" (the system's closure). The "logo concreto" (actual
dialectical process) is ongoing.
5. History that is Not Superseded: The concrete activity of spirit (the "logo concreto") is
eternally active. Art, as the subjective moment (feeling), is not exhausted by thought but is
perpetually re-fueling it. Art is an immortal ferment within all spiritual life.
CONCLUSIONE (Conclusion)
1. From Empirical to Philosophical Aesthetics: This essay attempts a philosophical, not
empirical, aesthetics, seeking art's essence in the absolute reality of spirit.
2. Prehistory of Aesthetics and Greek Philosophy: Ancients lacked the concept of "spirit" as
creative activity. Plato saw art as imitation, removed from Ideas. Aristotle's mimesis, while
insightful, remained naturalistic.
3. Middle Ages and Renaissance: Christian spiritualism laid groundwork. Humanism began to
assert human creative power. Bruno & Campanella saw nature as spirit-infused.
4. From Galileo to Vico and Baumgarten: Modern philosophy's quest for certainty (Galileo,
Descartes, Locke, Leibniz). Vico posited art/poetry as the first form of spirit. Baumgarten
coined "aesthetics" for "cognitio sensitiva."
5. From Kant to Hegel: Kant's transcendental aesthetic (sensible intuition). Hegel: art as sensible
form of the Idea (self-consciousness).
6. De Sanctis and Croce: De Sanctis emphasized form annulling content, art as feeling, life.
Croce, while building on De Sanctis, created a piecemeal, "four-word philosophy" (Beautiful,
True, Useful, Good) and an aesthetic that Gentile finds dualistic.
7. Of this Essay: This work returns to De Sanctis's depth, seeing art as "sentimento," the profound
life-force at the root of spirit, the "Atlas" supporting the world of thought and self-
consciousness. Art is the inherent nature and vitality of spirit itself.
In essence, Gentile presents art as the inactual, transcendental subjectivity or "feeling" (sentimento)
which is the very origin and perpetual wellspring of all spiritual activity, including thought, morality,
and religion. It is not a product but an eternal, dialectically active moment of the spirit's self-creation.