In notes titled “Past and Present” Gramsci analyzes past events to understand the defeat of workers’ movement. He then identifies macroscopic tendencies of possible use in the future. Of particular interest is a compact group of 6 notes in which he analyzes “the new non-parlamentary regimes,” mass movements grounded in consensus, and contemplates qualities necessary for a political leader.

From Gramsci’s prison notes on Inferno X a definition of national-popular literature can be culled. In this Canto form and content are perfectly synthesized in a psychological drama with which subaltern readers can identify when they can see their emotions are depicted artistically. This allows for further introspection and enhanced appreciate elevated artistic renderings that sincerely express such examples of shared humanity.

“Disinterested” learning” allows students to understand themselves better, and therefore to understand others better, and to question common sense in order to arrive at a higher understanding of their own conception of reality, and to transform from “mass man” into a socially aware “collective man,” member of a “hegemonic force.”

A debate between “culturists” and “revolutionaries” on socialist faith instills in a young Gramsci the importance of “disinterested” (detached from current events) culture as a means for achieving a greater understanding of oneself and the world and for transforming the world in accordance with one’s ideals. It causes him to begin to contemplate the need to supersede the deterministic formulas of traditional revolutionism.

Gramsci’s students (future cadres, political organizers, and teachers) learn to analyze key texts and to reason, which necessitates their interrogation of their thought processes, which enhances their ability to engage with others. For Gramsci, instructors must identify with students and understand their needs; so those who educate others must also interrogate and educate themselves.

This innovative reading of Antonio Gramsci’s writings casts into relief the enduring influence of books he read as a youth (e.g., the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and the Divine Comedy), and other important formative experiences such as a 1912 debate on socialist faith and his organization in 1917 of the Club of Moral Life. It also identifies and explores key elements of his thought that traverse and bind together his youthful writings and his prison notebooks: liberty understood as a fundamental value, the right (based on collective well-being, economic and social equality) to fulfill oneself as a person; his pedagogical commitment; the “disinterested” pursuit of knowledge, understood as an act of personal liberation; the transformation of inherited common sense into rational good sense; ethics; Gramsci’s unceasing struggle to free all from all forms of domination; and his desire to steer the course of history in a positive direction.

Gramsci cites from Paradise XXIV, based on Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews, to define faith. This shows that faith, for Gramsci, is more than political activism. It denotes moral behavior and a commitment to altruism and social justice, it unites a world view and a corresponding code of conduct.

Gramsci presents learning as an act of liberation and builds on Socialism’s “moral justification” by proposing the idea of freedom as a right based on shared well-being, economic and social equality, not a privilege contingent on personal wealth. Workers’ legacy is their contribution to a new society that provides all the freedom to choose and fashion their destiny.

Gramsci uses the beatification of Cottolengo to expose and counter religious hypocrisy and then to compare and contrast Cottolengo’s charitable work, a series of single acts, to the ongoing economic transformation and betterment of society set in motion by socialism, a faith characterized by a long-term program.

In 1917 Gramsci, using the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius as a primary text, instructs a group of young socialist militants in ethics, to interrogate received knowledge and think for themselves, to know their situatedness in a society divided into economic classes and continually hone their humanity, and to work for the benefit of all.

The City of the Future is a structured discourse, with rising and falling action, culminating in responses to existential questions. Gramsci argues against utopian (deterministic, mechanical) visions of socialism and for a “legally codified morality” that would guarantee equal opportunity and intellectual freedom.

Gramsci builds on Renato Serra’s argument — that living is synonymous with active involvement, participation in the polis means personal sacrifice, which in fact is liberating — to describe membership in the Socialist Party. Gramsci then compares Serra’s teaching to that of Francesco De Sanctis, for whom knowledge must be accessible to all.