La civiltà dello Stato in Silvio Spaventa

The paper reflects on the revolutionary form of Silvio Spaventa’s liberalism, examining the significance of the process of national unification in his thought and political practice. The revolutionary character of this approach, in which the Hegelian concept of the ethicality of the state is reflected, consists in the critique of the modern form of representation, which reduces conscience to a mere contemplative-conservative view of reality. The abstract form of liberalism is criticised through the introduction of the concept of the state as a directive consciousness aimed at the attainment of civilisation, that is, of that process in which freedom, which finds realisation in the body of the nation and the state, is actually concretised with a view to the common economic welfare.