Antonio Gramsci's Contribution to a Critical and Historical Sociology

This paper aims to go beyond the critical judgments on the sociology formulated by Gramsci. It wants to consider in the Philosophy of Praxis a Gramscian Science of Society that recognises to historical subject a decisive role in the processes of social change. Gramsci‘s starting point was clearly of Marxist origin. In line with the teachings of Antonio Labriola, Gramscian Marxism was a critical and anti-dogmatic Marxism. Gramsci raised the question of the strategic role of intellectuals in the organisation of the hegemony of a social group. To achieve a firm hegemony, Gramsci considered it essential to reform the intellectual and moral direction to create conditions that were favourable for changing the whole social structure, thereby allowing the subordinate classes to be elevated in civil terms.