Volume 15 (2019)

Influenţat de aşa-numita „psihologie a popoarelor” (Völkerpsychologie), profesată şi de Wundt, ca şi de cercetările lui Lévy-Bruhl, Rădulescu-Motru pune în discuţie mentalitatea omului primitiv, considerată pre-logică. Specificul acesteia l-ar constitui dominanţa treptei senzoriale a cunoaşterii, al cărei produs principal l‑ar constitui reprezentarea colectivă, un „produs al asocierii pasive a impresiilor venite prin simţuri”. Ea ar fi un fel de rudiment al viitoarei noţiuni, fiind ca şi aceasta un rezultat al unei unităţi sintetice, dar nu a intelectului, ci a „intuiţiei naive”. Pe plan judicativ s-ar petrece tot felul de asocieri între reprezentări cu suport real şi reprezentări fictive ale unor forţe, puteri etc. ireale, iar pe plan inferenţial ar apărea un fel de condiţionare fictivă. S-ar conchide de la efecte reale la cauze imaginare prin ignorarea oricărei experienţe. Un rol esenţial în depăşirea acestei faze a dezvoltării gândirii o constituie limbajul.

The author attempts to reveal some characteristics of the concept of given as Romanian philosopher Mircea Florian treats it in his early texts. The main argument of this interpretation goes to the idea that the two hypostases of the given – unmediated and mediated – appear formally as a pre-judicative circularity. Conse­quently, there is a movement of the thought regarding this concept that implies not only knowledge judgments, but also the signs of a nonjudicative experience. The (infinite) judgment – The given is non-determined – includes in its structure both elements: nonjudicative experience and judicative form. This is why the concept of given seems to be contradictory in Florian’s philosophy. The author of this paper emphasises also the idea about the philosophical meaning of difference between these two hypostases of the given. Finally, the author shows some directions of research regarding Florian’s philosophy, starting from (infinite) judgment abovementioned.

My aim in this paper is to argue that C. Rădulescu-Motru was in his book Puterea sufletească [The Power of Soul] very close to the positivist approach of psychology. I support the thesis that Motru not only had a good understanding of the project developed by Comte and Mill, but he also tried to use and integrate creatively, especially Mill’s ideas, into his own approach. Moreover, I propose the historical inter­pre­tation that Motru didn’t leave his own initial positivist methodological frame­work, but he tried to develop it inside the more complex vision of a method­olog­ical pluralism.

As a student in Wundt’s laboratory Rădulescu-Motru witnessed the birth of experimental psychology, linked to a paradigm shift in the under­standing of psyche. The following paper examines his Elemente de metafizică (1912) in order to uncover and clarify the concept of consciousness he employed in his metaphysical thought.

My intention is to argue for a new way of interpreting C. Rădulescu-Motru’s metaphysical theory by supporting the idea that his philosophical system provides us with a resourceful and useful model of self-improvement, which is recog­nizable in each Rădu­lescu-Motru’s work related to energetic personalism. The present study focusses on the first book of the energetic personalism series: Puterea sufletească (The power of the soul).

In this study we correlate the concepts of consciousness and coevolution, starting from the idea of consciousness as discussed by C. Rădulescu-Motru. We investigate the concepts of mnemes and memes (the latter as proposed by Richard Dawkins and interpreted by Daniel Dennett) in the light of two different understandings of consciousness: as a result of evolution, with emphasis on coevo­lution, and as “acknowledgement together”, i.e. as common, shared knowledge.

This paper analyzes the problem of the inner dialogue as it emerges from the philosophy of Mihai Șora as placed at the crosroads between the problem of being and consciousness, respectively ontology and anthropology. One theme that is responsible for bridging the problem of being with that of anthropology in Șora’s thought is the issue of consciousness. In this sense, any inquiry concerning the human takes place by reference to a (particular) consciousness, which is able to know and apprehend the existence of world. At the same time, Mihai Șora’s view on the human being can be understood by reference to his own ontological model, which aims to approach, analyze and discuss in detail the entire problem of being, that is ontology. There­fore, what I am aiming to present and critically address in this work deals with the manner in which the relation between being and consciousness gets constituted within Șora’s perspective of the inner dialogue.

In this paper the author takes a closer look to Emil Cioran’s concept of consciousness. Since consciousness is a traditional concept of philosophy and Cioran criticized philosophical thinking, first of all we need to clarify the meaning in which the term is employed in Cioran’s work. According to Cioran’s metaphysical suggestion, consciousness is opposed to nature and a symptom of dissolution. Cioran’s model of consciousness will be described in terms of a path from subjectivity to universality, which is also a path to redemption.

The anniversary of 130 years since the departure of Mihai Eminescu requires a philosophical and metaphysical re-thinking of what the creating conscious­ness of a genius represents for the local and global posterity. Accordingly, it is appropriate to draw attention to a series of quasi-ignored philosophical and meta­physical views through which Eminescu’s work acquired new cultural signi­fications. We have in mind the standpoints of Mircea Florian, Dumitru Isac, P. P. Negulescu, Constantin Noica, and Mihai Drăgănescu. They will be analytically exposed in the following article.

The article presents Constantin Noica’s theory on the philosophical virtues of the Romanian language that allowed it to shape a specific model of Being.

The objects or faces of Rembrandt’s or Brancusi’s works discussed in this article, and the works of art at large do not belong to reality, nor are they aesthetic pretexts embraced by the imagination that transfigures them; they are appear­ances in the sense of intuition of a surreality in the poiesis area. Therefore, the work of art is not an effort to reproduce the model exactly, even less an objective production with aesthetic attributes, it is a poetic vision lived and thought by the artist, having the abstract (sometimes metaphysical) attributes of a surreality to which the imagination of its creator has access.

The following article examines Hasdeu’s effort to develop a historiography in the spirit and with the conceptual support of European historical science of his time. Although he only managed to draw the sketch of his more extensive agenda, his „critical history” asked valuable questions regarding not only the Romanian history, but also the methods of the historical science.