DescriptionGiovanni Gentile.png	English: Philosopher Giovanni Gentile's portrait Italiano: Fotografia che ritrae il filosofo Giovanni Gentile
Date	English: First period of XX century (before 1930) Italiano: Primi decenni del Novecento
Source	[1]
Author	Unknown authorUnknown author
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Gentile worked early in his career in close co-operation and agreement with Benedetto Croce but a rift later separated them. This first involved philosophical disagreement then political divergence. Gentile supported the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini while Croce remained loyal to a form of liberalism. Gentile's 'fascism' is by no means deducible from his general philosophy. It is true that he espoused a form of political organicism, which threw the centre of attention towards the state and away from the citizen, but this has no directly and specifically fascist implications. Gentile may have supported fascism on grounds of nationalism and authoritarianism but neither of these had any logically firm basis in his general philosophy. His support for Mussolini waned; he held political office in the mid-1920s, then retired from active politics in order to edit the Enciclopedia Italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti. But he returned to politics at the disastrous end (for fascism) of the Second World War and served in Mussolini's politically ineffectual 'Social Republic' or Repubblica Sociale Italiana, formed in 1943. He was brutally killed by communist partisans in March 1944 en route to plead for a student who was in trouble with the fascist authorities.