This is theof the double review in Italian by Alessio Panichi of the volumes In cammino con Gramsci by Giuseppe Vacca and La fabbrica dei Quaderni. Studi su Gramsci by Michele Ciliberto. The former analyses Gramsci’s elaboration of the philosophy of praxis and the latter looks how Gramsci’s reading of the national history and cultural tradition of Italy informed the concepts developed in the Prison Notebooks.

This is theof the double review in English by Alessio Panichi of the volumes In cammino con Gramsci by Giuseppe Vacca and La fabbrica dei Quaderni. Studi su Gramsci by Michele Ciliberto. The former analyses Gramsci’s elaboration of the philosophy of praxis, and the latter looks how Gramsci’s reading of the national history and cultural tradition of Italy informed the concepts developed in the Prison Notebooks.

This is an abstract of the entry on “Common sense” published in the Dizionario gramsciano. There exist more than one “common senses” distinguishable by area, social stratum and period, continually enriched with scientific notions, and standing in-between folklore and the philosophy of the scholars. It is a “disorderly aggregate of philosophical conceptions” in which “whatever one likes” may be found. It must be subjected to critique, since it is often connotated by the various forms of conservatism. It is a social (...) group’s most wide-spread and often implicit ideology, and dialectically related to philosophy, meaning that a social group that aligns itself with the subalterns must enter into a dialectical relation with common sense in a mutually transformative way. Differently from Bukharin’s approach, the critique of common sense, Gramsci states, must be one of the starting points for a compendium of Marxism: forcing the introduction of new truths into common sense is proof of its capacity for expansion. At stake is the transformation of the subalterns’ conception of the world, by and through launching a struggle for hegemony involving a new common sense, culture and philosophy which, together, form a mass ideology which rendering politically possible the intellectual progress of the mass. (shrink)

This article provides a Marxist analysis of the concept of ‘common sense’. It traces the evolution of this concept – through various philosophers from Aristotle to Thomas Paine – in order to throw light on Gramsci’s own radical mobilization of the notion of ‘common sense’ as a mode of thought, and the role it plays in his broader philo-sophical system of class consciousness and hegemony. The piece seeks to both appreciate the revolutionary aspects of Gramsci’s analysis of ‘common sense’ but (...) also to draw attention to some of its limitations. Building on this, the final part examines the way in which ‘common sense’ as a concept has been mobilized – contra Gramsci – by the ruling classes of our own epoch; how it becomes a key component in the ‘political correctness gone mad’ narrative and a way, therefore, of justifying some of the most reactionary initiatives – from the xenophobia which feeds anti-immigrant bigotry to the neoliberal austerity measures which have flayed the living standards of those at the bottom in order to enshrine the wealth of those at the top. (shrink)

This article is a review of the book Antonio Gramsci: A Pedagogy to Change the World edited by Nicola Pizzolato and John Holst, which brings together contributions from specialists in Gramscian educational thought from different language-regions: English, Italian, French and Latin American. Seeking to contextualize the book, the articles reconstruct the main features of the reception of Gramscian thought in the Anglophone world. This shows the vast Anglophone tradition in employing Gramsci not only in the political or cultural field, but (...) also in the educational one. It also suggests that this tradition has reached our days, the Anglophone world being one of the main spaces in the study and use of Gramsci. The article, furthermore, outlines Gramsci’s legacy as a truly international challenge. In this sense, the book suggests a Gramscian problem that has gained an important influence in Gramscian studies over the last few decades, particularly in Italy and the Anglophone world: that of translation. This translation among intellectuals from various countries is not, to paraphrase Gramsci, “perfect” but it is essential in order to understand and assume our contemporary political-pedagogical challenges. (shrink)