Pedagogia e politica in Antonio Labriola dagli scritti sulla scuola popolare ai Saggi attraverso le lettere

The thesis analyses the link between pedagogy and politics in a specific segment of the author's intellectual journey: from his early writings about school policies, particularly in relation to popular schools, to the Essay’s on the materialist conception of history. In the analysed period, Labriola moves his critique of the ruling classes, first the historical right and then the historical left, starting from concrete elements rooted in the social reality of the time, especially about the educational policies that governments had pursued from the Unification of Italy until the 1890s of the 19th century. Is exposed the way in which the author embraces historical materialism with conviction, also making himself a living and original interpreter of it, coming to fruitfully combining two questions: the pedagogical question and the social question. The work is driven by the intention to bring out the mobile perspective of the Author, often expressed through letters that allow us to investigate the genesis of his thought in depth, also using the potentialities of digital technology which allow us to enter this “fluidity”.