1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vera, Augusto

VERA, AUGUSTO (1813–1885), Italian philosopher, was born at Amelia in the province of Perugia on the 4th of May 1813. He was educated in Rome and Paris, and, after teaching classics for some years in Geneva, held chairs of philosophy in various colleges in France, and subsequently was professor in Strassburg and in Paris. He left Paris after the coup d’état of 1851 and spent nine years in England. Attaching himself with enthusiasm to Hegel’s system, Vera (who wrote fluently both in French and in English as well as in Italian) became widely influential in spreading a knowledge of the Hegelian doctrine, and became the chief representative of Italian Hegelianism. Without any marked originality, his writings are distinguished by lucidity of exposition and genuine philosophic spirit. In 1860 Vera returned to Italy, where he was made professor of philosophy in the royal academy of Milan. In the following year he was transferred to Naples as professor of philosophy in the university there. His Prolusioni alla Storia della Filosofia and Lezioni sulla Filosofia della Storia were connected with his professorial work, which was specially devoted to the history of philosophy and the philosophy of history. He held this post till his death, which took place at Naples on the 13th of July 1885.

Among his numerous works may be mentioned Introduction à la philosophie d’Hégel (1855; 2nd ed., 1865); Problème de la certitude (1845); Le Hégelianisme et la philosophie (1861); Mélanges philosophiques (1862); Essais de philosophie Hégélienne (1864); Strauss, l’ancienne et la nouvelle foi (1873), an attack upon Strauss’s last “confession,” written from the standpoint of an orthodox Hegelian; and a comprehensive work in Italian, Il Problema dell’ Assoluto (Naples, 1872–82). His English works are an Inquiry into Speculative and Experimental Science (London, 1856); Introduction to Speculative Logic and Philosophy (St Louis, 1875), and a translation of Bretschneider’s History of Religion and of the Christian Church. He published also translations into French with commentaries of Hegel’s works: Logique de Hégel (Paris, 1859; 2nd ed., 1874); Philosophie de la nature de Hégel (1863–65); Philosophie de l’esprit de Hégel (1867–69); Philosophie de la religion de Hégel (1876–78, incomplete).

See R. Mariano, Augusto Vera (Naples, 1887) and Strauss e Vera (Rome, 1874); Karl Rosenkranz, Hegel’s Naturphilosophie und deren Bearbeitung durch A. Vera (Berlin, 1868).