) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 philosopher.

Work

Rensi taught as a professor at the University of Genoa

University of Genoa

The University of Genoa is one of the largest universities in Italy.Located in Liguria on the Italian Riviera, the university was founded in 1471. It currently has about 40,000 students, 1,800 teaching and research staff and about 1,580 administrative staff.- Campus :The University of Genoa is...

 and was considered a proponent of Relativism

Relativism

Relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration....

 and a supporter of the Conservative Revolution in Italy. In his 1920 tract Filosofia dell'autorità, he argued that, because different worldviews cannot be reconciled intellectually, there needs to be a single political authority backed by physical force in order to establish order in society. On this ground he was initially a backer of the then nascent Fascist

National Fascist Party

The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...

 movement. By 1925, however, with his work Apologia dell'ateismo, he opposed Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

 and was counted among the supporters of Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce was an Italian idealist philosopher, and occasionally also politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodology of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade...

, who wrote a manifesto against Fascism the same year. In 1927 he was given garden leave from his lectureship and arrested for a time in 1930. Finally he was dismissed from his post in 1934, after having published further critical writing. In reference to his opposition, written upon his tombstone is "Etiamsi omnes, ego non

Etiamsi omnes, ego non

is a Latin motto. The source is the phrase "Even if all others... I will not") in the Latin Vulgate version of a phrase from the Gospel of Matthew...

".

Secondary literature

• E. Buonaiuti: G. R. Lo scettico credente (Rome 1945)
• L'inquieto esistere, ed. V. R. Chiarenza (Genoa 1993)
• G. De Liguori: Il sentiero dei perplessi (Naples 1995)
• N. Greco: Giuseppe Rensi. Politica, autorità, storia (Palermo 2005)