Humanism in Italian Political Thought: Machiavelli, Gramsci and Ciliberto (Italyan Siyasal Düşüncesinde Hümanizm: Machiavelli, Gramsci ve Ciliberto)

The article aims to discuss and shed light on the concepts of humanism and Renaissance in Italian political thought. What is humanism? Why do we still discuss it even today? Are a new idea and definition of humanism possible? Such fundamental questions will be asked and answered in compliance with the thoughts of some important, both classical and modern, Italian thinkers such as Nicolò Machiavelli and Antonio Gramsci. The former clarifies the human condition and the human nature through his new political concepts of virtù and fortuna. His solution for the crisis of human condition, product of his/her nature, is possible through political action. Machiavelli’s originality is based on his view of human being not through ethical or moral, but political terms. On the other hand, Gramsci’s critique of humanism and the Renaissance, and his suggestion for a new idea of humanism through the philosophy of praxis helps us to comprehend a different point of view of humanism and the Renaissance. Undoubtedly, the condition of human being is the main question of humanism and the Italian Renaissance. Within this framework, the new book of the contemporary Italian thinker of Renaissance Michele Ciliberto, Il nuovo umanesimo (New Humanism), is particularly useful to re-examine the concept of humanism through the humanist texts of the XV and XVI centuries.