Search

The article focuses on the life of Giulio Preti who was a critical rationalist. He belonged to the generation of young intellectuals of 1930's in Italy. A regeneration of arts, philosophy and culture was called for by such intellectuals in a movement called "critical rationalism." Various journals were associated with the intellectuals of that time and Giulio was a part of "Studi filosofici," which grew out of the movement. He died in the summer of 1972 as an observer of anxiety, radical historical crisis and conflicted philosophy.

This article provides information on the origins and development of the sociology of law in Italy. In general terms, it is said that sociology of law in Italy is a deeply rooted and well institutionalized scientific discipline. Italian studies in law and society usually appear in Italian, an idiom whose international diffusion does not correspond to its noble tradition. Italian titles seldom appear in scientific bibliographies, irrespective of the intrinsic significance and value of the writings with the only exception of the Spanish speaking area, where sociology of law developed later than in Italy and was therefore to a certain extent affected, in its origins, by the relatively large production already accumulated within the closest linguistic community. As a premise, it should be said that a sociological approach to law in Italy had an early flourishing in the second half of the 19th century, alongside the diffusion of Positivism in philosophy and general sociology. During the early 1960s, the period was dominated by neo-positivism in general philosophy, by open normativism and realism in jurisprudence and by theoretical functionalism and methodological empiricism in sociology.

Italian sociology today is a flourishing discipline. This article explains the political and social factors, intellectual tensions and cultural openings which are responsible for Italian sociology's postwar developments. Postwar Italian sociology can best be analyzed in terms of five major political intellectual phases, each carrying its own specific sociological approaches and themes. The five phases are best described as follows. Sociology's postwar origins: sociology as intellectual rebellion in a postwar context of political, cultural and institutional marginality. Sociology's cultural centrality, emphasis on technological innovation. Sociology's professional consolidation, emphasis is placed on the political, cultural and economic aspirations of society as a whole. Sociology's crisis between reformism and radical change, emphasis on technology as alienation, on industrial sociology and on political voluntarism against technocratic planning. Sociology's national consolidation, as crossroads for Italy's principal social and political debates in the 1970s centering on the complex interpenetration of Italy's North and South both in social, economic and political terms.