Una meditazione sulla condizione umana

This article investigates the figure and works of Eugenio Garin from an innovative perspective, partly thanks to the new materials now available at the Archive of the Scuola Normale Superiore. The article highlights, on the one hand, Garin’s distance from Croce, especially in the 30s, and, on the other hand, shows his strong affinities with the French ‘philosophy of freedom’ (Blondel, Bergson). In particular, the deep influence on Garin’s education of intellectuals like Lavelle and Le Senne is examined, and more broadly of the representatives of the religious current of French existentialism. Finally, it is demonstrated that this culture influenced Garin at least until the second half of the 40s, when he undertook a new course, the most well-known, due to political reasons as well as to the encounter with the figure of Gramsci. On this base, this article intends to determine to what extent this philosophical background of existentialism and religious elements influenced the interpretation of the Renaissance given by Garin at least until the publication of L’Umanesimo italiano in 1947.