Romanian philosopher and translator
Mircea Florian
(
Romanian:
[?mirt?e?a
flori?an]
; April 1, 1888 ? October 31, 1960) was a Romanian philosopher and translator. Active mainly during the
interwar period
, he was noted as one of the leading proponents of
rationalism
, opposing it to the
Tr?irist
philosophy of
Nae Ionescu
. His work, comprising some 20 books, shows Florian as a disciple of
centrists
and rationalists such as
Constantin R?dulescu-Motru
and
Titu Maiorescu
.
Active in independent
social democratic
politics, the philosopher became a political prisoner under the
communist regime
. It was during his time in jail that Florian conceived his philosophical system, published after his death in the treatise
Recesivitatea ca structur? a lumii
("Recessivity as World Structure"). In 1990, he was made a posthumous
member of the Romanian Academy
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Born in
Bucharest
, Florian graduated from the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at the
local university
, where he became a disciple of R?dulescu-Motru and
P. P. Negulescu
.
[1]
He afterward took his PhD at the
University of Greifswald
, in the
German Empire
, with a thesis on
Henri Bergson
's notion of time.
[1]
In later years, he found employment as a Bucharest University assistant and substitute professor, lecturing in the History of Philosophy. He was a
Docent
from 1916.
[2]
During World War I, Florian served in the
Romanian Land Forces
and was taken prisoner by the
Germans
. He was transported to an internment camp at
Krefeld
, alongside figures such as
Alexandru D. Strurdza
and
Ilie Moscovici
.
[3]
Eventually, Florian was freed by his captors and allowed to lecture at
King Carol Foundation
in Bucharest, under a
German occupation government
. As Florian later indicated, this was made possible by the intercession of a
Germanophile
scholar,
Alexandru Tzigara-Samurca?
, who vouched for him, and by the protection of
Constantin Giurescu
.
[2]
Following the
November Armistice
, which reinstated the pro-
Allied
government, Florian, Tzigara-Samurca? and R?dulescu-Motru were all subject to an official inquiry, and accused of being
collaborators
. The University Commissions created for this task were largely ineffective, and, among the incriminated, Florian was one of few who presented himself for questioning.
[4]
In the wake of the war, Florian was in contact with
Ideea European?
, R?dulescu-Motru's magazine, and went on its conference tour, alongside in various cities by, among others, Nae Ionescu,
Cora Irineu
,
Octav Onicescu
,
Virgil B?rbat
, and
Emanoil Bucu?a
.
[5]
However, in later years, he remained largely cut off from his public: said to have been shy in delivering his lectures, he led a private life, and dedicated himself, almost entirely, to research.
[1]
He wrote a large body of works over a short time, including such titles as:
Indrumare in filosofie
("Philosophical Companion"),
Rostul ?i utilitatea filosofiei
("The Purpose and Use of Philosophy"),
?tiin?? ?i ra?ionalism
("Science and Rationalism"),
Cosmologia elen?
("Hellenic Cosmology"),
Antinomiile credin?ei
("The
Antinomies
of Faith"),
Kant ?i criticismul pan? la Fichte
("
Kant
and the Critical Method before
Fichte
"),
Cunoa?tere ?i existen??
("Knowledge and Being"),
Reconstruc?ie filosofic?
("Philosophical Reconstruction"),
Metafizic? ?i art?
("Metaphysics and Art"),
Misticism ?i credin??
("Mysticism and Faith").
[1]
Although absorbed by his academic work, Florian affiliated with social democracy, and was a member of the
Social Democratic Party
, the
Constantin Titel Petrescu
wing.
[1]
Florian's philosophy developed from ideas common to both R?dulescu-Motru and the 19th-century thinker
Titu Maiorescu
, herald of Romania's moderate and critical approach to philosophy. Florian is therefore ranked among the third-generation "Maiorescans", and seen as reactivating the spirit of Maiorescu's literary club
Junimea
.
[1]
[6]
After
World War I
, the
Junimist
legacy came in direct contradiction with Nae Ionescu's critique of rationalism, which was growing in popularity and lending its support to the
far right
's causes.
[1]
Florian's steady opposition to Ionescu, in both concept and method, has been described as the "dualism" of interwar
Romanian philosophy
.
[1]
By the time of World War II, Florian was still pursuing a debate with the two schools of irrationalism, promoted by
Lucian Blaga
and
Constantin Noica
. Granted a full professorship in 1940, he was presented for Romanian Academy membership by his mentor R?dulescu-Motru, but the proposal failed to gather support.
[1]
Blaga gave poor reviews to his work in
Saeculum
magazine, and, in one (disputed) interpretation, may have portrayed him as the unknown adversary in the virulent lampoon
S?punul filozofic
("Philosophic Soap", 1943).
[7]
According to literary historian
Z. Ornea
, Florian's relative lack of exposure is unfair, since his works may rank better than those of either Noica or Blaga.
[6]
Florian was also an adversary of official
fascism
, before and during the
Ion Antonescu
dictatorship. Like
Grigore T. Popa
,
Constantin I. Parhon
,
Alexandru Rosetti
,
Mihai Ralea
, and several other academics, he was in contact with the underground
Romanian Communist Party
and the
Union of Patriots
, and, as such, kept under close surveillance by the
Siguran?a Statului
agents.
[8]
Florian's stance, and especially his commitment to independent social democracy, made him a suspect upon the establishment of Romania's communist regime. As noted by researcher Victor Frunz?, Florian and
Alexandru Claudian
made a "high sacrifice" when they refused to give in to "blackmail" and would not join the "Workers' Party" (as the Communist Party styled itself upon its absorption of Social Democratic sympathizers).
[9]
In 1948, he was stripped of his university chair.
[1]
[10]
Placed under constant surveillance by the
Securitate
, Romania's new secret police, he was soon after arrested. During his eight-month-long imprisonment without trial, he had the revelation on "recessivity as world structure".
[1]
The new system evidenced that Florian had come to criticize some of the basic assumptions in
Western philosophy
, and conceiving of the world through the teachings of
genetics
.
[1]
His system divided existence alongside its two, equal but alternating, attributes: the
dominant
trait tempered by the recessive (albeit not degraded) one; violence to love, rational to irrational,
nationalism
to
supranationalism
.
[1]
The imprisonment is said to have been a grueling experience: allegedly, his wife Angela no longer recognized him upon his return to the family home.
[1]
A while after, Florian was partly reintegrated into academia, and assigned a researcher's position at the Institute of Philosophy. There, he dedicated himself to translating
Aristotle
's
Organon
, while in committing his
Recesivitatea
to paper in his spare time.
[1]
Recesivitatea
was only published 23 years after Florian's death, with
Editura Eminescu
. Reportedly, the text had suffered cuts and interventions by
communist censors
.
[1]
Florian's role was reconsidered mainly after the
Romanian Revolution of 1989
, when he was made a posthumous member of the academy.
[1]
His full work was recovered for the public and reviewed by philosopher
Mircea Flonta
, in a 1998 volume of essays.
[6]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
(in Romanian)
Oana-Georgiana En?chescu,
"Mircea Florian - nedreptatea unui destin"
Archived
2016-03-04 at the
Wayback Machine
, in
Romania Literar?
, Nr. 13/2002
- ^
a
b
Boia (2010), p.350
- ^
(in Romanian)
Constantin C. Gombo?,
"Insemn?ri din prizonieratul german"
, in
Historia
, May 2006
- ^
Boia (2010), p.347-356
- ^
(in Romanian)
Gheorghe Grigurcu
,
"Memoriile unui hedonist"
Archived
2016-08-04 at the
Wayback Machine
, in
Romania Literar?
, Nr. 41/2000
- ^
a
b
c
(in Romanian)
Z. Ornea
,
"O pasionant? carte de filosofie"
, in
Romania Literar?
, Nr. 17/1999
- ^
(in Romanian)
Florian Roati?,
"Despre polemica Blaga-Motru"
, in
Romania Literar?
, Nr. 4/2009
- ^
Boia (2012), p.236-237
- ^
Victor Frunz?,
Istoria stalinismului in Romania
,
Humanitas
, Bucharest, 1990, p.274.
ISBN
973-28-0177-8
- ^
Boia (2012), p.302
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