Initially an idealist philosopher in the tradition of Giovanni Gentile, by the early 1940s and after an engagement with empiricist philosophy he turned strongly against idealism.
[2] One key aspect of Della Volpe's mature thought was his attempt to develop a strictly materialist theory of aesthetics as he emphasised the role of structural characteristics and the social process of production of works of art in the formation of aesthetic judgment in opposition to Croce's doctrine of intuition which he considered a continuation of the romantic and mystical tradition of the 19th century.
Della Volpe also wrote on issues of political philosophy, particularly the relations between the thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx.
He saw Rousseau's thought on these issues as being the precursor of Marx’s famous attacks on bourgeois law in the Critique of the Gotha Programme and other writings.
Some of his most notable works include: Della Volpe had a number of students and disciples, including Ignazio Ambrogio, Umberto Cerroni, Lucio Colletti, Alessandro Mazzone, Nicolao Merker, Franco Moretti,[3] Armando Plebe, Mario Rossi and Carlo Violi.