La concezione della scienza nell'idealismo attualistico

It is well known that the philosophical debate during the early 20th century was characterized by the opposition between neo-idealism and science, with Benedetto Croce leading the philosophers' side and the mathematician Federigo Enriques representing the scientists. The philosopher Giovanni Gentile, initially sympathetic to Croce's ideas, will reconsider his attitude towards science, eventually appreciating its epistemological value. On the one hand, this change will depend upon the influence that various philosophy of science scholars belonging to his own school had on him and, on the other, upon his contribution to the Enciclopedia Treccani, as well as the close interactions that he will have with some prestigious Italian scientists due to political and institutional reasons. More importantly, Gentile's interest towards science finds important roots in the influence of his son, Giovanni Gentile Jr., an important theoretical physicist at Fermi's Institute in Via Panisperna. Giovanni was a close friend and collaborated with Ettore Majorana; he shared the same epistemological ideas as Werner Heisenberg, with whom he successfully studied ferromagnetic phenomena in Leipzig. Due to complex reasons, Gentile's interest towards scientific ideas goes along with the major crisis of his neo-idealism philosophy towards the end of the 20s and the beginning of the 30s, precisely when important historical events were heavily impacting on the cultural and ideological features of Italian's fascism.