Lucio Colletti

Lucio Colletti (December 8, 1924, Rome – November 3, 2001, Venturina Terme, Campiglia Marittima, Province of Livorno) was an Italian Western Marxist philosopher. Colletti started to be known outside Italy because of a long interview that Marxist historian Perry Anderson published in the New Left Review in 1974.

Biography

Colletti studied philosophy at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he earned a Laurea with a thesis entitled La logica di Benedetto Croce (The Logic of Benedetto Croce) and directed by Carlo Antoni. In 1951, he was inspired by the Western Marxist philosopher Galvano Della Volpe. Colletti was well known as a critic of Hegelian idealism and also later became a noted critic of Marxism. He wrote the foreword for the Italian edition of Alfred Schmidt's The Concept of Nature in Marx.

Colletti changed his political beliefs very often and abandoned many of his early Marxist beliefs. Colletti joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1949 and emerged as an important cultural party figure. In 1964, Coletti left the PCI because the break with its semi-Stalinist past was leading in what he called a "patently rightward direction." In the 1970s he was among the supporters of Socialist leader Bettino Craxi. From 1996 until his death he was elected in the list of Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing political party, in the Italian parliament.

Selected publications

• The Manifesto of 101
• “The Theory of the Crash.” Telos, 13 (Fall 1972). New York: Telos Press.
• 1972 (1974) From Rousseau to Lenin
• 1973 (1979) Marxism and Hegel

External links

• English-language obituary from The Guardian (UK)