Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen · 1903
This German review examines Teresa Labriola’s Del divorzio, La donna nella società moderna, and La persona. Schullern presents her as an established scholar qualified to teach legal philosophy at Rome. His organizing claim connects the three studies to social policy:
Alle drei Schriften haben enge Berührungspunkte mit der Sozialpolitik, wenn sie auch zunächst sich auf dem Gebiete eines anderen Faches bewegen.
English translation: All three writings have close points of contact with social policy, even though in the first instance they move in the field of another discipline.
Divorce has immediate significance amid Italy’s contentious legislative debate over dissolving marriages, including Catholic marriages. Schullern does not reconstruct the opposing arguments, but distinguishes his disagreement from his recognition of Labriola’s scholarly merit:
Es sei hier nur bemerkt, daß meine Ansichten von denen der Verfasserin weit abweichen, daß ich aber andererseits durchaus anerkennen muß, daß ihre Ausführungen weitgehende Beachtung verdienen.
English translation: Let it merely be remarked here that my views diverge widely from those of the authoress, but that on the other hand I must fully acknowledge that her expositions deserve extensive attention.
This qualified appreciation also informs his treatment of the women’s movement. Praising Labriola’s objectivity, he reports her view that women’s continuing inferiority cannot be explained solely by economic circumstances. Its ultimate basis lies in an anthropological fact preceding society’s division into classes. Since the review does not specify that fact, it permits only a limited reconstruction of her explanation.
The account of La persona turns to whether Western European political institutions secure freedom for all individuals. Its questions distinguish formal rights from the actual ability to exercise them and ask whether their basic conditions are equally available. Schullern reports Labriola’s conclusion that liberty, equality, and fraternity require a new society in which personhood constitutes both a right and a duty. Society must supply the conditions through which individuals can attain the full dignity of personality.
The movement from legal status to the social prerequisites of effective freedom makes the review’s social-policy connection concrete. Schullern concludes by commending Labriola’s extensive reading and careful engagement with German scholarship. His appraisal thus grants intellectual seriousness and contemporary relevance without implying agreement with her conclusions.
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