Constantin Noica
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Constantin Noica (/kon.stan'tin 'noj.ka/) (25 July 1909 [O.S. July 12], Vităneşti, Teleorman - December 4, 1987, Sibiu) was a Romanian philosopher and essayist, of Aromanian origin. His preoccupations were throughout all philosophy, from epistemology, philosophy of culture, axiology and philosophic anthropology to ontology and logics, from philosophy history to systematic philosophy, from antic to contemporary philosophy, from translating and interpreting to critics and creation.
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[edit] Biography
He studied at the Dimitrie Cantemir Lyceum and Spiru Haret Lyceum, both in Bucharest. At Spiru Haret his math teacher was Dan Barbilian (pen name Ion Barbu, poet and mathematician). His debut was in Vlăstarul magazine, in 1927. Between 1928 and 1931 he attended courses of the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, where he graduated from in 1931 (thesis: "Problema lucrului în sine la Kant" / "The matter of thing-in-itself in Kant's philosophy"). Here he meets as a teacher philosopher Nae Ionescu.
He worked as librarian at the Seminar of Philosophy History and attended the courses of the Faculty of Mathematics for one year (1933). He was member of the Criterion Association (1932-1934). His friends there, including Mircea Eliade, Mihail Polihroniade, and Haig Acterian, later (more or less) supported the Legionnaire Movement. Believing that the fight for the resurrection of Romania had to be a cultural, not a political one, he refused to join the movement.
After attending specialization courses in France between 1938-1939 (receiving a scholarship from the French government), he returned to Bucharest where he earned his doctor's degree in philosophy, in 1940 (thesis: Sketch on the history of How is something new possible, published the same year).
In October 1940 he left to Berlin as a reviewer at the Romanian-German Institute, staying there during WWII, until 1944.
In 1949 he was sentenced by communist authorities to forced residence in Câmpulung-Muscel, remaining there until 1958. In 1958 he was sentenced 25 years' forced labor and confiscation of all property. He was a political detainee in Jilava prison for 6 years, until 1964.
From 1965 he lived in Bucharest, where he was principal researcher at the Romanian Academy's Center of Logics. In his two-room apartment he held seminaries on Hegel's, Plato's and Kant's philosophy. Among the participants there were Sorin Vieru (his coleague at the Center of Logics), Gabriel Liiceanu and Andrei Pleşu.
His last 12 years, beginning in 1975, he spent in Păltiniş, near Sibiu. He was buried at the nearby hermitage.
In 1988 he was awarded the Herder Prize, and in 1990 (after the fall of communism in Romania) he was accepted as a post-mortem member of the Romanian Academy.
[edit] Quotes
- "I dream of a school where they really teach nothing." / "Visez o şcoală în care să nu se predea, la drept vorbind, nimic."
- "I am a merchant of ideas." / "Eu sunt negustor de idei." (declaration during trial)
[edit] Books
- 1934 - Mathesis or simple pleasances ("Mathesis sau bucuriile simple")
- 1936 - Open concepts in the philosophy history on Descartes, Leibniz and Kant ("Concepte deschise în istoria filozofiei la Descartes, Leibniz şi Kant")
- 1937 - De caelo. Essay around noesis and individual ("De caelo. Încercare în jurul cunoaşterii şi individului")
- 1937 - Life and philosophy of René Descartes ("Viaţa şi filozofia lui René Descartes")
- 1940 - Sketch on the history of How it's possible something new ("Schiţă pentru istoria lui Cum e cu putinţă ceva nou")
- 1943 - Two introductions and a passing by on idealism ("Două introduceri şi o trecere spre idealism")
- 1944 - Philosophic journal ("Jurnal filosofic")
- 1944 - Pages on Romanian soul ("Pagini despre sufletul românesc")
- 1962 - "Phenomenology of Spirit" by G.W.F. Hegel narrated by Constantin Noica ("Fenomenologia spiritului de G.W.F. Hegel istorisită de Constantin Noica")
- 1969 - Twenty-seven levels of the real ("Douăzeci şi şapte trepte ale realului")
- 1969 - Platon: Lysis
- 1970 - Romanian philosophic utterance[1] ("Rostirea filozofică românească")
- 1973 - Creation and beatifulness in Romanian utterance[1] ("Creaţie şi frumos în rostirea românească")
- 1975 - Eminescu or Thoughts on the complete man of the Romanian culture ("Eminescu sau Gânduri despre omul deplin al culturii româneşti")
- 1976 - Breaking up with Goethe ("Despărţirea de Goethe")
- 1978 - Romanian sentiment of beingness ("Sentimentul românesc al fiinţei")
- 1978 - Romanian spirit at the distress of times. Six maladies of the contemporary spirit ("Spiritul românesc la cumpătul vremii. Şase maladii ale spiritului contemporan")
- 1980 - Tales about the man, after Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" ("Povestiri despre om")
- 1981 - Becoming into beingness[2], vol. 1: Essay on the traditional philosophy, vol. 2: Treaty of ontology ("Devenirea întru fiinţă", vol. 1: "Încercare asupra filozofiei tradiţionale", vol. 2: "Tratat de ontologie")
- 1984 - Three introductions to becoming into beingness[2] ("Trei introduceri la devenirea întru fiinţă")
- 1986 - Letters on Hermes logics ("Scrisori despre logica lui Hermes")
- 1988 - De dignitate Europae (in German)
- 1990 - Pray for brother Alexander! ("Rugaţi-vă pentru fratele Alexandru")
[edit] External link
- (Romanian) Noica's page at the Humanitas publishing house [1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b The title is built on a word game: "rost" = sense, meaning, but "a rosti" = to pronounce, translated here by to utter.
- ^ a b Noica uses the old Romanian word "întru" (< Lat. intro), now rarely used and substituted in the current use of the language by "în" (= Eng. in). See here how Noica explains its use:
"If a nourishing plant, that we can not find elsewhere, would grow on the Romanian soil, we should have to answer for it. If words and meanings that can enrich man's soul appeared in our language, but they didn't appear in others speech or thought, we should also have to answer for them.
Such a word is întru; such a meaning appears to be that of beingness. Actually, our peculiar understanding of beingness is, maybe, the result of the peculiar meanings of întru, that came to seemingly express the beingness from within, suggesting that «to be» means «to be into /întru/ something», that is to be, but not fully, in something, to rest but also to aspire, to close oneself but also to open oneself. In this way the beingness was pulled out from stillness and shook. But if it wouldn't be shaking, would it still be truly? What kind of beingness is the one that has no place for neither a vibration, nor an advance?".
