Abstract

The confrontation with Croce represents a significant parameter in outlining Caracciolo’s philosophical itinerary, which winds between the aesthetic theme – considered by Caracciolo as the via regia to the metaphysical problem, understood as the problem of the purpose of existence – and the problem of religion, oversimplified by Croce in terms of the “religion of liberty”. According to Caracciolo, Croce had a strong psychological and sentimental inclination to the metaphysical, but showed himself incapable of thinking the metaphysical to the end, due to an initial refusal to think in a metaphysical way