La malattia europea e il crepuscolo dell'idealismo

The article discusses the idea of a European disease that, in Benedetto Croce’s "Storia d’Europa", is called ‘romanticism’. Romanticism is in a relationship, at the same time, of difference and of filiation from the German idealism. Contextually to the advancement of the romantic disease, the sunset of idealism is diagnosed. The discussion is divided into three parts: the first considers the ‘religious’ tone of Croce’s ethical-political history as a response to the ‘religious war’ of the time; the second analyzes the physiological function of theoretical or speculative romanticism, synonymous with idealism, and distinguishes it from the pathological one, which manifests itself on the practical and above all political level; finally, the third carries out some considerations on the cultural climate in which Croce’s "Storia d’Europa" is inserted and which is profoundly marked by the perception of the crisis of European civilization.