Utopia and Reality: the "culture" of politics in Rodolfo De Mattei

This work aims to deal with the composite reflection of the historian of political doctrines Rodolfo De Mattei (1899-1981) about the subject of utopia, going through some moments of his researches on 17th century political literature, between treatises about reason of State and the tradition of political utopia. The judgement on the literary-political utopian kind turns out to be perfectly consistent with the scholar’s more general conception of politics, expressed in some key essays of methodological character, which appeared during the thirties of 19th century, about the history of political doctrines discipline role and aim. It is in fact a critical perspective which is a rethinking of some traditional classifications, such as those of realism and idealism, that centres around the worth of the historical process and the lead of an ethical approach to politics, which always relies on the mediation of multiple forms and manifestations of culture.