L'apostolo della "vita interna". Linguaggio intimo e decadenza morale in Giuseppe Prezzolini interprete di Bergson

This article offers an important contribution both to the reception of Henri Bergson in Italy and to the international research on Giuseppe Prezzolini, focusing in particular on the problem of language as a «cause of error» and, at the same time, on the life force of inner word in the young Prezzolini reader of Bergson. Based on this historical reconstruction, I am analyzing some important textual passages of Prezzolini’s early production, rediscovering the philosophical journal «Leonardo» (1903-1907), the first voice of «Italian pragmatism» founded with his friend Giovanni Papini. The aim of this article is to highlight Prezzolini’s main commitment in favouring the formation of a young philosophical aristocracy that, through the art of persuasion, should protect the community from the double danger of democracy and socialism.