Volume 21 (2025)

DOI: 10.59277/SIFR.202521

1. CONCEPTUAL-LEXICAL APPROACHES

The problem of philosophical language and the idea of a dictionary of philosophical terminology in the history of Romanian philosophy (From Cantemir to Noica)

Titus Lates

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 11–26]

Abstract

From the beginning, those who wrote philosophy in Romanian were faced with the problem of establishing a philosophical language and felt the need to compile a dictionary (lexicon, vocabulary) that would fix a philosophical terminology and help in its understanding. One problem was the adoption of foreign terms, and another was the investigation of the resources of the Romanian language in order to discover terms capable of becoming philosophical concepts. Therefore, in the formation of a Romanian philosophical language, both the translations that proved the possibility of expressing philosophical ideas in Romanian and the original creators of philosophy played an important role. In this presentation, several opinions are offered about the difficulties encountered in finding terminological solutions as well as several directives formulated for compiling dictionaries of philosophy, recorded in the history of Romanian philosophy, from D. Cantemir to C. Noica.

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Influences and originality in the philosophical manuscripts of Simion Bărnuțiu. Remarks on terminology

Ionuț Isac

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 27–44]

Abstract

While teaching philosophy in Blaj (1839–1845) and then in Iași (1855–1864), Simion Bărnuțiu focused his lectures on ontology (metaphysics), logic, the theory of knowledge, and legal science. All of these subjects bear the obvious influence of I. Kant (1724–1804) and W. T. Krug (1770–1842), the latter of whom was considered an authority on philosophical education throughout Europe. For scholarly purposes, Bărnuțiu mainly used Krug’s Handbuch der Philosophie und der Philosophischen Literatur, a very popular book of its kind. Contrary to popular belief, Bărnuțiu’s philosophical papers are not merely faithful translations of Krug’s work, lacking originality. However, the influence of Krug’s ideas was more in spirit than in letter: philosophical transcendental synthetism entails political liberalism with an openness to criticism and anti-dogmatism. Thus, Bărnuțiu found a way to use Krug’s ideas to support his own views on social and political issues in Transylvania. In this way, the Romanian professor recognised and emphasised the connections permitted by Krug’s philosophy between
metaphysics, epistemology, ontology, ethics and pedagogy. He often adapted Krug’s original text to support his arguments and provide examples concerning the problems of Transylvanian society at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era. The references to Bărnuțiu’s terminology in the text of the study are accompanied at the end by a glossary of
terms used by Bărnuțiu, compiled by Prof. Eugen S. Cucerzan. These terms appear in the philosophical manuscripts of the illustrious intellectual, being indicative of the effort undertaken by him in order to compile a specialized local vocabulary.

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Heidegger, Noica and the relevance of (Romanian) philosophical utterance as an intra- and intercultural practice

Traian-Ioan Geană

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 45–72]

Abstract

The following article serves a threefold purpose. Firstly, it offers a description of two different types of philosophical utterance, i.e., of two practices meant to highlight the philosophical potential of a particular language. The first type, endorsed by Martin Heidegger, is based on the search for a pre-logical Logos of lived experience and, later, of language as a reality beyond human grasp; it is characterised by the innovative, forceful stretching of the limits of language and by its belonging to a hegemonic cultural space. The second type, practised by Constantin Noica from the standpoint of a marginal(ised) culture, is much more open to scientific and linguistic insights and less tortured, though also less innovative, in its dealing with language. By revealing crucial differences between Noica’s and Heidegger’s thought, the resulting analysis may, on a second level, also be read as a comparative study on these two thinkers. Thirdly, the article is an attempt to defend the relevance of philosophical utterance by stressing its affinities with intercultural philosophy and – in the case of Romanian philosophical utterance – by drawing on Hegel’s view of art, religion and philosophy as the primary domains of Absolute Spirit in order to argue that religion, poetry and philosophy are in a privileged position to promote the intra- and intercultural virtues of Romanian philosophical utterance as a practice.

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Lucian Blaga’s law of non-transponibility

Henrieta Șerban

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 73–89]

Abstract

Lucian Blaga departs from the aesthetic conceptions of the 19th century. His law of non-transponibility (LNT) emphasizes an original approach to the autonomy of art, providing topical criteria for defining and evaluating “kitsch”, one of the many forms of aesthetic failure. Natural beauty and artistic beauty are not the same. LNT is neither idealism nor aestheticism. It is meant to capture what is most important in the question of the autonomy of art, by clarifying the function of specific artistic criteria, which should not be overly simplified, as aestheticians tend to do.
In his view, art is a direct consequence of the human being’s positioning in the horizon of mystery. Art and knowledge meet in their shared failure to absolutely conquer mystery. In accordance with Blaga and LNT, aesthetic failure is rather a betrayal of human becoming and positioning in the horizon of mystery. In conclusion, the study discusses LNT in contrast to natural beauty – the first experience of symbolic eloquence, proportion, and the refusal of stridency – as well as the scientific metaphor, understood as art returning to the expressivity of natural experience (the “immediate”), with epistemological and non-kitsch benefits.

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A. D. Xenopol’s concept of the historical series and spiritual progress

Mihai Popa

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 90–99]

Abstract

This article examines A. D. Xenopol’s theory of historical series as one of the most original contributions of Romanian philosophy to the theory of history. Conceived at the turn of the twentieth century and articulated in Les principes fondamentaux de l’histoire (1899) and La théorie de l’histoire (1908), Xenopol’s model distinguishes between natural causality, governed by repetition, and historical causality, governed by succession. The concept of the historical series, defined as a succession of unique and temporally individualized events, serves as the methodological counterpart of natural law within the domain of history. Xenopol emphasizes the epistemological role of seriality in explaining continuity and transformation, while also recognizing the limits of historical prediction: although individual events remain unpredictable, serial structures reveal tendencies and conditions that shape historical development. His theory integrates moral and spiritual dimensions, underlining the significance of ideas, ethical values, and great personalities alongside scientific and political factors. In this sense, Xenopol aligns with broader European debates on the relationship between science, morality, and progress, while maintaining the primacy of political structures in determining historical change. The article situates Xenopol’s thought within the context of Romanian and European philosophy, contrasting it with related conceptions such as Vasile Pârvan’s metaphysical vision of history. Ultimately, Xenopol’s theory of historical series emerges as both an epistemological framework and a philosophy of spiritual progress, whose reception in France, Germany, and beyond testifies to its lasting significance.

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Marginalia

Vasile Băncilă on the decline of celebration and the drift of modern man

Daniel Cojanu

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 103–112]

Abstract

In several of his essays, Vasile Băncilă proposes a metaphysics of celebration. This approach allows him to capture certain aspects that anthropologists and sociologists do not observe. In a poetic way, he manages to express some valuable intuitions about the relationship of celebration with the human need for the transcendent. And to extract the defining function of celebration: that of integrating man into the surrounding reality. Starting from the observation that these meanings have been lost over time, Băncilă carries out an analysis of the main forms of epistemic, political, and metaphysical drift in modern man.

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The metaphysical and phenomenological dimensions of love as defined in Ernest Bernea’s philosophy

Constantin Stroe

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 113–123]

Abstract

In the following study, I argue that, while deeply rooted in and strongly connected to religiously oriented philosophies, yet also marked by certain notable differences, Ernest Bernea’s philosophical ideas cultivate love as a central theme for understanding human nature and the human condition. From this perspective, I show that Bernea seeks to reveal the dimensions of love, its meaning, and its image, starting from one of his fundamental theses: man is the only being on Earth who simultaneously lives within three realities and therefore bears three dimensions: being in the world; being in relation to others; and being for the Absolute. I therefore analyse the manifestations of love as Bernea understands them across these three fields of reality. I conclude that authentic love possesses a consistency and gravity that define the very essence and destiny of the human being. For this reason, I argue with conviction that love must be included within the sphere of metaphysics, where it reveals both its ontological meaning – as “secretly binding things together, being the existential thread and the potential energy of a call to harmony and balance” – and its epistemological meaning – as a path to knowing the relative (where the individual discovers both himself and the most hidden depths of the other) and the absolute (where love, as a way toward the Absolute, leads us to the knowledge of God). Furthermore, I highlight the most important functions of love in Bernea’s vision: love as the universal energy of life; love as the universal principle of inter-human relationships (grounded in his belief that, by opening oneself to the other and to others, love also opens the gates of morality); and love as the foundation of the ethics of marriage and family.

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Reconstructed profiles

A disciple of Bărnuț: Teodor Lateș

Bogdan Rusu

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 127–139]

Abstract

Teodor Lateș was a member of the school of Simeon Bărnuț, a prominent Transylvanian revolutionist, later an influential professor of philosophy and law at the university of Jassy and the main ideological inspirer of the political party The Free and Independent Fraction. He was himself a teacher of philosophy and a deputy in the United Principalities’ parliament representing The Free and Independent Fraction. In this paper we dispel some confusions concerning his identity and writings, we restore the main coordinates of his life and thought, and we assess his importance for the intellectual history of Romania.

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Beyond the canons: The all-encompassing system of G. D. Scraba

Mona Mamulea

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 140–171]

Abstract

The following article reassesses the intellectual profile of G. D. Scraba, a thinker situated outside the dominant Maiorescu-centered paradigm of his time. Influenced by the unconventional dialectics of Jean-Jacques Gourd and by the speculative constructions of Heliade-Rădulescu and Vasile Conta, Scraba developed a system whose reach far surpassed the disciplinary status quo. The study reconstructs the unifying vision behind this heterogeneous architecture and argues that Scraba pursued a massive project of reorganizing the entire world of experience, aiming at a universal science grounded in a serial structuring of being.
Since Scraba operated within conceptual frameworks fundamentally distinct from standard philosophical and sociological categories, his system cannot be adequately treated through familiar methodological lens. Its non-conformist architecture requires an explicitly outside the box approach.

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Restitutio

Ioan Meșotă: „An exposition of several psychic phenomena with regard to psychological expressions in the Romanian language”

Introductory note; edited by: Titus Lates

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 175–189]

Extract

Ioan Meșotă s-a născut în Dârstele Brașovului în anul 1837. Tatăl său, George (Gheorghe) Meșotă, curatorul bisericii din comună, l-a dat mai întâi la școala din Dârste, apoi la cea din Turcheș, iar de aici l-a dus la Brașov, unde a urmat cursurile primare la școala română din Șchei și la cea catolică din cetate. După terminarea studiilor elementare, în 1850 a fost înscris la Gimnaziul romano-catolic maghiar din Brașov (în septembrie), dar după numai două luni a trecut ca elev la Gimnaziul românesc din Brașov, nou înființat (în noiembrie). Aici a urmat primele patru clase din ciclul inferior (câte avea gimnaziul la acea vreme), fiind coleg de clasă, în primul an, cu Titu Maiorescu, și și-a continuat studiile la Gimnaziul superior luteran săsesc (înființat de Johannes Honterus în 1541), în perioada 1854–1858. Remarcat de protopopul Brașovului Ioan Popasu, a plecat în toamna anului 1858 la Viena, unde a urmat timp de doi ani cursuri filosofice, pe care le-a continuat la Bonn, luându-și doctoratul în filosofie în anul 1861.
După întoarcerea de la studii a fost numit profesor la Gimnaziul românesc din Brașov, îndeplinind din 1870, până la sfârșitul vieții (1878) și funcția de director al școlilor medii din Brașov (după moartea primului director, Gavril Munteanu).

În anul școlar 1864/5, la Gimnaziul de la Brașov a început să se predea Propedeutica filosofică, care a fost introdusă în planul de învățământ pentru clasa a VII-a, conform Proiectului de organizare (Entwurf) din 1849, care prevedea împărțirea materiei în doi ani de studiu: Logica, în clasa a VII-a, și Psihologia empirică, în clasa a VIII-a. Ca țintă pentru această pregătire erau stabilite (după programă): „întregirea cunoștințelor experimentale despre lumea din afară prin cunoașterea empirică a vieții sufletești; cunoașterea sistematică a formelor generale de cugetare, ca încheiere a învățământului de până acum și ca pregătire a instrucțiunii ulterioare științifice”.
Din anul următor, 1865/6, Ioan Meșotă, a predat propedeutica filosofică după manualele herbartiene ale lui Gustav Adolf Lindner: Lehrbuch der formalen Logik (Graz, 1861) și Lehrbuch der empirischen Psychologie nach genetischer Methode (Cilli, 1858).

După primul an în care a predat psihologia empirică, a publicat „Espunerea catorva fenomene sufletesci cu privire la espresiunile psicologice în limb’a rumanésca” în A septea programa a gimnasiului plenariu românescu de religiunea gr. orientale pe an. scol. 1865/6, redactată („redigéta”) de G. J. Munteanu (Brasiovu, Tipografi și provediutori Römer & Kammer, 1866), text pe care îl reproducem aicicu intenția de a-l aduce în atenție, considerând-l remarcabil, dar puțin cunoscut. Textul original este puternic marcat de forme latinizante care, în vederea prezentei restituiri, au fost transcrise fonetic. Abia din anul 1874, Ioan Meșotă, ca director, a introdus în școlile pe care le patrona ortografia fonetică, situându-se de partea lui Titu Maiorescu în disputa privind scrierea în limba română.
[Din Titus Lates, Prospectul unui lexicon pentru propedeutica filosofică: Notă introductivă, pp. 176–177].

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2. ATITUDES

Constantin Noica, Mathesis and culture

Ana Bazac

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 193–236]

Abstract

The paper analyses some features and problems of the phenomenon and concept of culture, benefiting from the opportunity given by Constantin Noica’s two books related to culture, which delimitate his philosophical creation. These books are: Mathesis or the Simple Joys, 1934, and The European Cultural Model, 1986–1987. The analysis of the meanings of the idea of culture follows Noica’s reasoning, viewed both from outside and inside. It is emphasised that the eventual difficulty to understand the Romanian philosopher’s theory of morphology of culture arises from its metaphysical character. The metaphysical language might be ambiguous, but Noica’s theory is clear and heuristic, if we do not look at the metaphysical framework through a “naturalistic” lens.

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3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

The history of Romanian philosophy in 2024

Bibliography by Titus Lates

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei româneşti, vol. XXI: Perspective conceptual-lexicale, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 2025, pp. 239–241]

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1. CONCEPTUAL-LEXICAL APPROACHES

The problem of philosophical language and the idea of a dictionary of philosophical terminology in the history of Romanian philosophy (From Cantemir to Noica)

Influences and originality in the philosophical manuscripts of Simion Bărnuțiu. Remarks on terminology

Heidegger, Noica and the relevance of (Romanian) philosophical utterance as an intra- and intercultural practice

Lucian Blaga’s law of non-transponibility

A. D. Xenopol’s concept of the historical series and spiritual progress

Marginalia

Vasile Băncilă on the decline of celebration and the drift of modern man

The metaphysical and phenomenological dimensions of love as defined in Ernest Bernea’s philosophy

Reconstructed profiles

A disciple of Bărnuț: Teodor Lateș

Beyond the canons: The all-encompassing system of G. D. Scraba

Restitutio

Ioan Meșotă: „An exposition of several psychic phenomena with regard to psychological expressions in the Romanian language”

2. ATITUDES

Constantin Noica, Mathesis and culture

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

The history of Romanian philosophy in 2024

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