Philosophy that never leaves elite circles cannot transform common sense

Evidence

By “immanentist philosophies” Gramsci normally means Italian idealism of the beginning of the century (Croce, Gentile, etc.), one of whose features was its rejection of Catholic transcendentalism; but he uses the term here also to characterise much of the philosophical thought of, for example, the Renaissance, which was in a similar way hermetic and incapable of extending its influence beyond elite circles. … It should be noted however that Gramsci also describes the philosophy of praxis as in a different sense “immanentist”, in that it offers the most consistent rejection of any form of transcendence. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2464

Categorization

• XREF: Directly prefigures Gramsci’s later hegemony/common-sense machinery: philosophy must become ‘popular’ to move the masses, echoing his notes on intellectuals and the ‘national-popular’. — connects to: Elite policy expertise implies no inclination to serve the common good — Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics:…, 139