Wednesday, May 19, 2010

H.M. King Michael of Romania- the monarch whose decision have shortened World War II by at least six months



H.M. King Michael of Romania (born October 25, 1921) reigned as King of the Romanians (Romanian: Maiestatea Sa Mihai I Regele Românilor, literally "His Majesty Michael I King of the Romanians") from July 20, 1927 to June 8, 1930, and again from September 6, 1940, until forced to abdicate by the communists backed up by orders of Stalin to the Soviet armies of occupation on December 30, 1947.

He is also a Prince of Hohenzollern.

Married 10 June 1948 to Queen Anne of Romania

A great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria by both of his parents and a third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, he is one of the last surviving heads of state from World War II, the others being Simeon II of Bulgaria and former King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

In 1944, World War II was going badly for the Axis powers, but the military dictator Prime Minister Marshal Ion Antonescu was still in control of Romania. As of August 1944, the Soviet conquest of Romania had become inevitable, being expected in a few months according to Encyclopedia Britannica. On August 23, 1944, Michael joined the pro-Allied politicians, a number of army officers, and armed communist-led civilians in staging a coup against Antonescu, whereas it was recognized in the late 1970s that King Michael ordered his arrest by the Royal Palace Guard. On the same night, the new Prime Minister, Lt. General Constantin Sănătescu—who was appointed by King Michael—gave custody of Antonescu to the communists (in spite of alleged instructions to the contrary by the King), who delivered him to the Soviets on September 1. In a radio broadcast to the Romanian nation and army, Michael issued a cease-fire just as the Red Army was penetrating the Moldavian front, proclaimed Romania's loyalty to the Allies, announced the acceptance of the armistice offered by Great Britain, the United States, and the USSR, and declared war on Germany. However, this did not avert a rapid Soviet occupation and capture of about 130,000 Romanian soldiers, who were transported to the Soviet Union where many perished in prison camps. Although the country's alliance with the Nazis was ended, the coup sped the Red Army's advance into Romania. The armistice was signed three weeks later on September 12, 1944, on terms the Soviets virtually dictated. Under the terms of the armistice, Romania recognized its defeat by the USSR and was placed under occupation of the Allied forces with the Soviets, as their representative, in control of media, communication, post, and civil administration behind the front. The coup effectively amounted to a "capitulation", an "unconditional" "surrender". It has been suggested that the coup may have shortened World War II by six months, thus saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

 Many historians believe that if Romania was not returning at the right time arms against the Nazis, end of World War II could be different, Hitler's laboratories preparing at that time for building nuclear bomb. Only a matter of time, probably a few months, prevented him to perform nuclear weapon.


 King Michael was the last monarch behind the Iron Curtain to lose his throne. At the end of the war, King Michael was awarded the highest degree (Chief Commander) of the Legion of Merit by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. He was also decorated with the Soviet Order of Victory by Joseph Stalin "for the courageous act of the radical change in Romania's politics towards a break-up from Hitler's Germany and an alliance with the United Nations, at the moment when there was no clear sign yet of Germany's defeat," according to the official description of the decoration.

In March 1945, political pressures forced King Michael to appoint a pro-Soviet government dominated by the Romanian Communist Party. Under the communist régime King Michael functioned again as little more than a figurehead. Between August 1945 and January 1946, during what was later known as the "royal strike," King Michael tried unsuccessfully to oppose the first communist government led by the communist Prime Minister Petru Groza, by refusing to sign its decrees. In response to Soviet, British, and American pressures, King Michael eventually gave up his opposition to the communist government and stopped demanding its resignation.

In November, 1947 King Michael travelled to London for the wedding of his cousins, The Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) and The Duke of Edinburgh, an occasion during which he met Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, who was to become his wife. According to unconfirmed claims by so-called Romanian 'royalists', King Michael did not want to return home, but certain Americans and Britons present at the wedding encouraged him to do so; Winston Churchill is said to have counseled Michael to return because "above all things, a King must be courageous." According to his own account, King Michael rejected any offers of asylum and decided to return to Romania, contrary to the confidential, strong advice of the British Ambassador to Romania.

However, on December 30, 1947, King Michael I was forced at gun point (by either Petru Groza or Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, depending on the source) to abdicate Romania's throne in his own Royal Palace which was surrounded by the Tudor Vladimirescu army units loyal to the communists. Later the same day, the communist-dominated government announced the 'permanent' abolition of the monarchy and its replacement by a People's Republic, broadcasting the King's pre-recorded radio proclamation of his own abdication

There are several accounts as to why King Michael abdicated. As recounted by Michael himself, the communist prime-minister Petru Groza had threatened him at gun point and blackmailed him that the government was to shoot 1,000 arrested students if King Michael didn't abdicate. In an interview with The New York Times from 2007, Michael recalls the events: “It was blackmail. They said, ‘If you don’t sign this immediately we are obliged’ — why obliged I don’t know — 'to kill more than 1,000 students' that they had in prison.” According to Time magazine,[1] the communist government threatened Michael that it would arrest thousands and steep the country in blood if he did not abdicate. In 1992, three years after the revolution which overthrew the Communist dictatorship, the Romanian government allowed Michael to return to his country for Easter celebrations, where he drew large crowds. In Bucharest over a million people turned out to see him. Michael's popularity alarmed the government of President Ion Iliescu so Michael was forbidden to visit Romania again for five years. In 1997, after Iliescu's defeat by Emil Constantinescu, the Romanian Government restored Michael's citizenship and again allowed him to visit the country. He now lives partly in Switzerland at Aubonne and partly in Romania, either at his Săvârşin castle in Arad county or in an official residence in Bucharest—the Elisabeta Palace—voted by the Romanian Parliament by a law concerning arrangements for former heads of state.

According to the succession provisions of the Romanian kingdom's last democratically approved monarchical constitution of 1923, upon the death of King Michael without sons, the claim to the Crown devolves once again upon the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family, (see "Line of succession to the Romanian throne").

However, on December 30, 2007, on the 60th anniversary of his abdication, King Michael signed the Fundamental Rules of the Royal Family of Romania, by which he designated Princess Margarita as heiress to the throne with the titles of "Crown Princess of Romania" and "Custodian of the Romanian Crown." On the same occasion, Michael also asked the Romanian Parliament that, should it consider restoring the monarchy, it should also abolish the salic law of succession.

Michael cannot be said to have encouraged monarchist agitation in Romania and royalist parties have made little impact in post-communist Romanian politics. He takes the view that the restoration of the monarchy in Romania can only result from a decision by the Romanian people. "If the people want me to come back, of course, I will come back," he said in 1990. "Romanians have had enough suffering imposed on them to have the right to be consulted on their future." King Michael's belief is that there is still a role for, and value to, the monarchy today: "We are trying to make people understand what the Romanian monarchy was, and what it can still do" (...for them). According to a 2007 opinion poll conducted at the request of the Romanian Royal House, only 14% of the Romanians would agree with the restoration of the monarchy. Another 2008 poll found that only 16% of Romanians are monarchists.

Michael has undertaken some quasi-diplomatic roles on behalf of post-communist Romania. In 1997 and 2002 he toured Western Europe, lobbying for Romania's admission into NATO and the European Union, and was received by heads of state and government officials.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Ştefan Lupaşcu

LOGICAL AND ESTHETICAL EXPERIENCE WITH STEFAN LUPASCU
by Stefan Munteanu

Abstract. Stefan Lupascu is a French thinker of Romanian origin who tried to find a solution for the crisis of Epistemology by a new method of approaching philosophy to science. This article aimes at highlighting his original outlok. Starting from the belief that sub-stratum of existence is energy, characterized by interacting antagonist dynamism, Stefan Lupascu suggest that the dynamic logic of contradiction – which enlarges the possibility of understanding, including the artistic creation – should be accepted instead of classical logic.
 Consequently, according to Lupascu’s logic, crisis is the perfect background for art. Therefore, art’s message is a traffic one. Comic is a degraded art and not a triumph of ethics over aesthetics. An artist’s ethics is that of the most intense contradiction, of the
ontologic efectiveness towards sufferance or joy.




Stefan Lupascu’s work (1900-1988) a French thinker of Romanian origin, is a complex philosophical system focused on the dynamic logic of contradiction. It is about a theoretical daresome creation meant to offer a solution to the epistemological contemporary crises, towards a new and original approach of the philosophy as a science. Further on Stefan Lupascu aims even an essential change of the human capacity to understand the reality. Having the new logic as a basis, without being classical, he places the whole explanation about the surrounding environment in other terms. The philosopher is convinced that the basis of existence is the energy characterised by antagonistic dynamisms, mutually balanced, and so the actualisation
of one implies the action of the other and the other-wayaround.
 Through this dialectic, theorised under the name of antagonistic principle, the energy becomes systematised within the material. In other words the material is perceived as “energetic systematiser”. The idea is that depending on the stage of the balance of the
two energetic dynamisms (between symmetric and asymmetric), three private directions of the energetic systematise are identified, respective: a) physical material, having a tendency towards homogeneity and identification; b) the biological material, directed to
heterogeneity and diversity and c) psychic material, affectivity within which the two dynamisms stay balanced (an estate of an equal potentiality and actualisation between one and another). To better understand the three materials, dominated by specific causes, we need, in Stefan Lupascu’s opinion, three different logics, all of them
based upon the science of contradiction. And thus, after mankind searched thousands of years for order and peace within a logic of non-contradiction, Stefan Lupascu is
disposing the change of this structure, offering contradiction in order to save eternity. It is true that Stefan Lupascu does not reject the classical logic but he includes it into the dynamic logic of the contradiction. For him, the classical logic “does not apply but with
approximation to the macrophysical systems from which it is derived”.
 The three types of energy as material systematisations are characterised not only through causes, respectively specific logic, but through conclusions, respectively different cybernetics. The central idea is that in the case of the antagonistic cause, inherent to each event, the cause determines not only an actualisation, an efficiency but also a potentiality, that is why a finality; thus parallel to the causal chain of
actualisations, there also exists a causal chain of potentialisations. And while the actualisations, or the efficient causes collapse in unconscious, the potentialisations or the teleological causes, make up the conscience. In the case of the human, because he is the centre of the three types of the material-energy, the antagonistic cause, viewed under the dimension of the three logics, creates three ethics or three energetic behaviours: the macrophysics ethics (of the mixed energy); the biological ethics (of the heterogenious energy) and the neuropsychic ethics (of the energy of equilibrium or of the “T”estate).
 This means that for the understanding of the logic of the aesthetic, proposed by Stefan Lupascu, we must take into consideration the affectivity estate. The explanation comes from the fact that, apart from the three constituent phenomena of the three materials, that are sustaining each-other in a good relationship by being reported to something, the affection estates are to themselves sufficiently. And so without being relational, the affection does not become but it is an ontological existence, it is the extra-temporal and the extra-spatial embodiment, being both subject and object, but neither of them in fact. Affection invades all psychic, under the conditions that psychic is understood as a constitutive part of any substance existing in the world, a contradictorial energy which gives proportion. In this way, Stefan Lupascu writes that: “everything is a proportion, everything is a relationship of what existence means. In exchange, and this is extremely important and mysterious – everything that appears and disappears as affectivity estates, a certain pleasure, a certain pain, these are not balanced but to themselves: they are not in relationship, they simply exist and they are enough to themselves”. In this direction, to a great extent, the affectivity proves the existence of the three ethics. More over, starting from the affectivity one may explain the pathology estates of the neuropsychic, for example schizophrenia, neurotics or melancholia may be explained. And thus, the ethics, the one that must decide between “yes” or “no”, is a research of the contradiction. That is why, while becoming a science, ethics may be created without having its basis on affection. It is not the same with the aesthetics, where the affectivity is indispensable. Because affectivity is the engine, it is the springs for any crises estate, being just necessary there for the artistic experience. That is why, Stefan Lupascu thinks that: “ the logic of aesthetics must develop, must be turned around towards a contrary
direction of the logic of ethics; contrary to a rational or irrational, in other words, opposed to a process of contradiction” .
 The esthetical experience implies contemplation and so, a desire to avoid action. This is the starting point of the process of knowing the knowledge. As an example, Stefan Lupascu says that drawing a reindeer means the perception of the conscience not of the
reindeer, but of the conscience of a reindeer. This is the resulting idea that any artistically event is a perception of knowledge, a conscience of the conscience. The idea is that the working of art must not be absolutely understood as being neither objective nor subjective. In other words the working of art is considered to be more esthetical “being lesser subjective and lesser objective at the same time, or, more precisely, simultaneously half-subjective and half-objective, meaning less unreal and less real or
further on, half real and, at the same time, half unreal. And this is in fact fiction” .
It is necessary, then, to overpass the current opinions concerning the understanding of “the concept” and recognising it as an essential synthesis of the psychic world. Because, in Stefan Lupascu’s opinion, inside the concept, we must discover not only an abstract scheme, but a concentration of all the perceived achievings having
as final target the human brains. The core of the concept must not be neglected for the sake of the exterior.
 Because Stefan Lupascu says that the concept “is the essence, and it might be said, even the whole essence of psychic at the highest rate of its energetically existence”.
 Such an aspect is the one of the artist, which is the house of “the conscience” and of the unconscious, respectively of “the understanding of the knowledge and unknown”. In other words the artist expresses a maximum estate of tension, emerging from the coexistence of the half-potentialising and half-actualising estate, together with their effects, too. Because the artist is a creator, “he must go down within the depths of the
soul, unless he wants to get, against his will, to the reproducer spying him all the time, temping him from all sides of the art phenomenon”.
 The great pressure undertaken by the psyches upon man has its place within the idea, within the creative force of the concept. From images, the basically information and the extensive ones continue their way upwards towards the concept, in which they find themselves dialectically re-united, the homogeneity and the heterogeneity, and thus making a thing being identical and non-identical in the same time. It result the idea that the springs of the perception of the world, and of human conscience also, is the interaction between the practical effort of individual and reality. The fruit of this interaction is the creative imagination, specific to the psychic.
But Stefan Lupascu makes us aware of the fact that “there is no stronger phenomenon, more fertile and at the same time more dangerous, but that of the creative imagination specific to the psychic”.
 It is true that, being in a continuous transformations, new dynamic phenomena appear constantly inside the physical material and inside the biological material. Different from physical and biological material, inside the physic material “the actualisations and potentialisations are stopped half-way of their path inside an equal antagonism and a contradiction that creates – once with the controlled field – a kind of liberty of what we might call the contradictorial determination”. We find out, thus, that creative imagination is “a world inhabited by dreams, but that they are different in many ways from the dreams of a simple sleep, a world of things and beings extremely light and changeable from a spatial and temporal point of view, within which the subject and the object relax,
making the unconscious and the conscience weaker within a mixture of subjectivity and objectivity of a thin texture, being fluid and gauzy, large and untouchable in present, past and future, promoting new horizons emerging within by themselves but which require mental efforts, a sustained attention being sufficient to themselves within an unstable and false polymorphism at the same time, as opposed to the classical logic”.
 The liberty of spirit is the effect of mutual restraining of the systematically dynamism, waiting for the possibilities to be actualised and potentialised. Thus we may explain that the psychos is fragile and has the vocation to be responsible for the whole human activity.
This is the basis on which the logic of aesthetics rests, which “steps from non-contradictory to contradictory”. The aesthetics experience is defined by an escape from the action and contemplation, meaning putting an end to the development of one or another of the two antagonistically dimensions, throughout a contrary becoming. This estate means the starting point of the process of understanding the knowledge.
Even from this short presentation of the logical structure of art it may result some characteristics of the logic of the aesthetic fact. It results, first of all, the fact that the art is “a desire towards liberty (of indifference), towards unconditional”. It results, secondly, that the art has “a characteristic emptied of any interest”, meaning “an aimless finality” in Immanuel Kant’s opinion. Thirdly, it is about the characteristic of the aesthetic fact of being “a knot of possible ones”. Finally, a forth consequence of the logic of the aesthetics is that the history of art rests upon the becoming of knowledge.
 Being the source of understanding the knowledge, “the art is less possible, the more the understanding is more developed”. Because, as it is known, in Stefan Lupascu’s
concept, the understanding fights against the understanding of knowledge.
 Consequently, according to Stefan Lupascu’s logic, the estate of crises is the most adequate atmosphere for art. That is why the message of art is tragic, and the comic is deteriorated art, a triumph of the ethic upon the aesthetic. The artist is expected to wake up the affection.
 This is a proof that the extremely logicallyformalised Stefan Lupascu’s philosophy, does not lose sight of man. And that is why, proposing an original concept, we think that this philosophy hardly starts its life.

Ştefan Lupaşcu

Ştefan Lupaşcu, (fr. Stéphane Lupasco, n. 11 august 1900, Bucureşti, d. 7 octombrie 1988, Paris) este un filosof român de limbă franceză.


Viaţa şi cariera

Se naşte la 11 august 1900 în Bucureşti. Provine dintr-o familie de boieri moldoveni, tatăl său fiind politician şi avocat.

În 1916 ajunge în Franţa, unde va trăi până la sfârşitul zilelor sale. Studiază la Lycée Buffon, Paris. În 1920 îşi susţine bacalaureatul.

Între anii 1924-1927, studiază filosofia, biologia şi fizica (cu Louis de Broglie) la Sorbona, unde se şi licenţiază în 1928. În 1926 publică la Paris primul şi singurul său volum de poezii - Dehors....

Se căsătoreşte, la Paris, cu Georgette Ghica, în 1929.

În 1935 publică prima sa opera filosofică, teza de doctorat intitulată Du devenir logique et de l’affectivité, susţinută la Sorbona, sub conducerea lui Abel Rey. Teza este publicată în două volume: Le dualisme antagoniste et les exigences historiques de l'esprit şi Essai d'une nouvelle théorie de la connaissance. Publică, în acelaşi an, o teză complementară - La physique macroscopique et sa portée philosophique.

Se căsătoreşte a doua oară, cu Yvonne Bosc (1937).

În 1940 publică în România Experienţa microfizică şi gândirea umană, la Fundaţia Regală pentru Literatură şi Artă. Cartea este tradusă în ediţie franceză sub titlul L'expérience microphysique et la pensée humaine (P.U.F., Paris, 1941).

În 1944, în timpul celui de Al doilea Război Mondial, încearcă, fără succes, să îl scoată pe prietenul său, poetul Benjamin Fondane, din lagărul de concentrare de la Drancy. Poetul este însă deportat la Auschwitz, unde va muri executat în camera de gazare.

După război, în 1946, Ştefan Lupaşcu este numit cercetător la C.N.R.S. (Centre national de la Recherche Stientifique), la secţiunea epistemologie.

În 1947 îi apare volumul Logique et contradiction.

În 1951 publică Le principe d'antagonisme et la logique de l'énergie - Prolégomènes à une science de la contradiction. În paginile acestei cărţi îşi enunţă pentru prima dată principiul antagonismului, pe bazele căruia fundamentează o logică non-aristotelică (a terţului inclus).

În 1952, candidează, fără success, la Collège de France.

În 1953 primeşte titlul de Ofiţer al Academiei Naţionale de Educaţie.

În 1960 apare Les trois matières, carte prin intermediul căreia Lupaşcu se face cunoscut şi apreciat pe plan internaţional. Începe procesul de traducere a operei sale în diferite limbi (spaniolă, germană, italiană, portugheză, română). Acestei cărţi îi urmează: L'énergie et la matière vivante (1962); Science et art abstrait ( 1963); La tragédie de l'énergie (1970); Qu'est-ce qu'une structure ? (1971); Du rêve, de la mathématique et de la mort (1971); L'énergie et la matière psychique (1974).

Opera sa a fost admirată de-a lungul timpului de către diferiţi oameni de ştiinţă, filosofi, poeţi, pictori, teologi, printre care se numără: Bernard d'Espagnat, Basarab Nicolescu,Edgar Morin, Gilbert Durand, Georges Mathieu, Salvador Dali, Michel Camus, Thierry Magnin etc.

În 1976, i se gravează o medalie de către James Guitet (Club Français de la Médaille), pe o faţă aflându-se efigia lui Ştefan Lupaşcu, iar pe cealaltă faţă formulele fundamentale ale logicii terţului inclus.

Îi apar Psychisme et sociologie (1978) şi L'univers psychique (1979).

În 1984 primeşte premiul Academiei Americane de Arte şi Ştiinţe.

În 1986 publică ultima sa carte, L'homme et ses trois éthiques, în colaborare cu Solange de Mailly-Nesle şi Basarab Nicolescu.

În 1987 devine membru fondator al Centre International de Recherches et Études Transdisciplinaires (C.I.R.E.T.).

Moare la 7 octombrie 1988.
Activitatea jurnalistică


În timpul vieţii a fost redactor la revista "Revue philosophique", Paris; membru al comitetului de redacţie al revistei Ring des Arts (Cercul de Artă Contemporană, Zürich), apoi membru consiliului de redacţie al revistei "3e Millénaire".

Opera

Lucrări publicate

Dehors…, poezii (Stock, Paris, 1926)

Du devenir logique et de l’affectivité, teză de doctorat în 2 volume: vol. I - Le dualisme antagoniste et les exigences historiques de l'esprit, vol. II - Essai d'une nouvelle théorie de la connaissance (Vrin, Paris, 1935)

La physique macroscopique et sa portée philosophique (Vrin, Paris, 1935)

Experienţa microfizică şi gândirea umană (Fundaţia Regală pentru Literatură şi Artă, 1940)

Logique et contradiction (P.U.F., Paris, 1947)

Le principe d'antagonisme et la logique de l'énergie - Prolégomènes à une science de la contradiction (Coll. "Actualités scientifiques et industrielles" , n° 1133, Paris, 1951)

Les trois matières (Julliard, Paris, 1960)

L'énergie et la matière vivante (Julliard, Paris, 1962)

Science et art abstrait (Julliard, Paris, 1963)

La tragédie de l'énergie (Casterman, Paris, 1970)

Qu'est-ce qu'une structure ? (Christian Bourgois, Paris, 1971)

Du rêve, de la mathématique et de la mort (Christian Bourgois, Paris, 1971)

L'énergie et la matière psychique (Julliard, Paris, 1974)

Psychisme et sociologie (Casterman, Paris, 1978)

L'univers psychique (Paris, Denoël-Gonthier, Coll. "Médiations", 1979)

La topologie énergétique (în Pensées hors du Rond, La Liberté de l’esprit. 12: 13-30. Paris, Hachette, 1986)

L'homme et ses trois éthiques, în colaborare cu Solange de Mailly-Nesle şi Basarab Nicolescu (Le Rocher, Coll. "L'esprit et la matière", Paris, 1986)

Concepţia filosofică

Fundamentele ştiinţifice ale discursului lupascian sunt: principiul al doilea al termodinamicii, teoria relativităţii, teorema lui Zermelo, unele aspecte teoretice ale mecanicii cuantice: cuanta de energie a lui Max Planck, descoperirea naturii corpuscular-ondulatorii a luminii (Einstein), principiul de nedeterminare (Werner Heisenberg), principiul complementarităţii (Niels Bohr), principiul de excluziune (Wolfgang Pauli), descoperirea spinului particulelor - J. Uhlenbeck şi S. Goudsmidt, descoperirea pozitronului (Paul Dirac) ş.a. Aceste descoperiri sunt grăitoare din punctul de vedere al substanţialităţii discursului lupascian, deoarece ele înfăţişează multitudinea de forme prin care devine vizibil dualismul experienţei microfizice, pe baza căruia se valorifică noua semnificaţie a conceptului de contradicţie.

Pe deplin conştient de faptul că, în lumina noilor descoperiri ştiinţifice, procesul cunoaşterii trebuie refondat din punct de vedere logic şi epistemologic, Lupaşcu lansează ipoteza unei validări şi valorizări a naturii contradicţiei, acordându-i acesteia rolul de factor euristic cu mare putere predictivă în domeniul cunoaşterii ştiinţifice. Iar acest lucru nu îl putea realiza decât dacă îşi asuma riscul de-a relaxa fundamentarea filosofică absolutistă a logicii aristotelice. În acest sens, edificiul teoretic lupascian poate fi considerat ca un răspuns la următoarea întrebare: “ce se va întâmpla dacă se neagă caracterul absolut al principiului non-contradicţiei, dacă se introduce contradicţia, o contradicţie ireductibilă în structura, funcţiile şi operaţiile înseşi ale logicii?”.

În viziunea tradiţională, contradicţia semnala o situaţie anormală în cadrul unei teorii, anomalie asociată cu un impediment în aflarea legilor exacte ale naturii şi care, în consecinţă, trebuia numaidecât să fie înlăturat. Lupaşcu se distinge net de această atitudine, valorizând contradicţia, din punct de vedere logic şi epistemologic, ca pe un dat intrinsec oricărei achizitii ştiinţifice şi ca pe un factor propulsor în progresul cunoaşterii. În limitele acestor consideraţii, logica revendicată de Lupaşcu este definită ca: “ştiinţa primă a dinamismelor contradictorii din orice experienţă”, ceea ce implică urmări notabile în problema cunoaşterii. Logica cunoaşterii sau experienţa ştiinţifică se constituie în urma unor observaţii capitale:

i) Operatorul şi operatul logice sunt actualizarea şi virtualizarea (potenţializarea) valorilor logice . Valorile logice sunt văzute prin prisma operaţiei de actualizare care afectează direct “operatul” sau valoarea potenţializată.

ii) Subiectul şi obiectul sunt produse funcţionale ale operaţiei logice . Noţiunile de subiect şi obiect nu preced şi nu condiţionează procesele de actualizare şi virtualizare, ci sunt derivate ale lor. Subiectivizarea rezultă din actualizare, în timp ce obiectivizarea rezultă din virtualizare. Ceea ce se subiectivizează actualizându-se, respectiv ceea ce se obiectivizează virtualizându-se sunt identitatea sau afirmaţia identificatoare ori diversitatea sau negaţia diversificatoare. Valorile logice au deci, proprietăţile constitutive ale actualizării, potenţializării, subiectivizării şi obiectivizării, subiectul şi obiectul dovedindu-se a fi funcţii ale operaţiilor.

iii) Cunoaşterea şi necunoaşterea, realul şi irealul sunt fenomene funcţionale ale operaţiei logice. Orice proces de cunoaştere al unui anumit obiect presupune dispariţia din conştiinţa subiectului cunoscător a cunoaşterii de sine: “Consacrat în întregime observaţiei cutărui eveniment [...], pe masură ce observaţia mă acaparează, dispar ca observator” în consecintă, în orice proces cognitiv există un subiect al necunoaşterii şi un obiect al cunoaşterii. Experienţa logică se caracterizează astfel prin intermediul a două tipuri de logică: cea subconştientă, activă, a actualizărilor şi subiectivizărilor, a subiectelor şi cea conştientă, pasivă, a virtualizărilor, a obiectivizărilor sau a obiectelor. În cadrul acestui demers, noţiunea de realitate semnifică obiectivitatea unui dat, iar cea de irealitate exprimă subiectivitatea sa.

Acestea sunt principalele idei care au anticipat metoda gnoseologică şi epistemologică edificată de Lupaşcu, menită să confirme valabilitatea unei abordări non-identitare şi contradictoriale asupra realităţii. Metoda pe care Lupaşcu şi-a întemeiat întreaga construcţie filosofică constă în formularea unui postulat şi a unui principiu pe baza cărora se fundamentează un limbaj axiomatizat, o logică ce nu mai ţine cont, cel puţin în aparenţă, de principiile logicii aristotelice. Logica lui Lupaşcu defineşte natura energiei şi comportă trei orientări principale valabile atât în cadrul elementelor cât şi în cele ale operaţiilor logice. Prin intermediul acestei logici, Lupaşcu îşi revendică dreptul de-a relativiza non-contradicţia afirmând că tertium non datur (excluderea terţului) trebuie să fie înlocuit cu tertium datur (includerea terţului).

Aşadar, în Principiul antagonismului şi logica energiei, postulatul logicii contradictoriului este enunţat astfel: “Oricărui fenomen, sau element, sau eveniment logic, ca şi judecăţii care îl gândeşte, propoziţiei care îl exprimă sau semnului care îl simbolizează: lui e, de exemplu, trebuie să-i fie asociat întotdeauna, structural şi funcţional, un antifenomen, sau antielement, sau antieveniment logic, şi deci o judecată, o propoziţie, un semn contradictoriu: non-e sau ē”. Aceste două elemente, e şi ē, au proprietatea de-a se actualiza şi potenţializa periodic astfel încât actualizarea unuia condiţionează indispensabil potenţializarea celuilalt. Se înlocuieşte astfel principiul de bază al logicii clasice cu postulatul logicii dinamice a contradictoriului.

Dacă p • non-p era expresia unei inconsistenţe în logica clasică, Lupaşcu nuanţează legile acestei logici prin intermediul conjuncţiilor contradicţionale de bază: eA ∙ ēP; ēA ∙ eP; eT ∙ ēT. În această expresie, A semnifică actualizarea, P potenţializarea iar T o stare nici actuală, nici potenţială - T ≡ ~A~P. Starea a treia justifică faptul că elementele e şi ē pentru-a trece din starea de actualizare în cea de potenţializare, sau invers, trebuie să se afle cu necesitate într-un stadiu în care nu sunt nici actuale, nici potenţiale faţă de elementele lor contradictorii. Prin urmare, nu există actualizare absolută sau potenţializare riguroasă a unui constituent în detrimentul celuilalt. Din postulatul logicii contradictoriului se deduc trei disjuncţii, trei dialectici, trei tipuri de silogisme ş.a.

Desfăşurarea acestor implicaţii este în chip necesar transfinită, dovada evidentă a acestui lucru fiind aceea că o implicaţie, indiferent dacă este afirmativă sau negativă, nu poate fi actualizată riguros, implicând la rândul ei o implicaţie contradictorie. Cu alte cuvinte, în demersul filosofic al lui Lupaşcu, relativismul epistemologic şi logico-ontic este garanţia succesiunii transfinite a logicului şi a realităţii. Observăm în tabelul deducţiilor că fiecare dintre cele trei implicaţii se divid în alte trei implicaţii mai complexe ş.a.m.d. Dintre toate acestea, trei prezintă o importanţă deosebită:

i) Prima implicaţie reprezintă o actualizare progresivă a implicaţiei pozitive şi o potenţializare treptată a implicaţiei negative;

ii) A doua, o actualizare ascendentă a implicaţiei negative şi o potenţializare direct proporţională a implicaţiei pozitive;

iii) A treia redă nici-actualizarea, nici-potenţializarea celor două implicaţii contradictorii.

Acestea sunt orto-deducţiile, operaţii definite ca succesiuni convergente de implicaţii ale implicaţiilor fundamentale. Orto-deducţia pozitivă sau identificatoare este ansamblul de implicaţii orientată asimptotic spre polul logic imposibil în care se actualizează infinit implicaţia pozitivă. Aceasta alcătuieşte structura teoriei fizice clasice, a cauzalităţii acesteia şi a experienţei matematice corespondente. Orto-deducţia negativă sau diversificatoare evidenţiază actualizarea implicaţiei negative şi potenţializarea celei pozitive, este operaţia inversă care semnalează faptul că excluziunea sau legătura negativă organizează structura logicului conform unei cauzalităţi a variantului, ori a iraţionalului . Această deducţie reprezintă osatura logicii vieţii, care face continuu recurs la apariţia diversităţii fenomenului vital, biologic. Orto-deducţia cuantică este descrisă de al treilea lanţ de implicaţii, aflate în starea T, într-un echilibru simetric care actualizează contradicţia. Aceasta are semnificaţia cauzalităţii dialectice şi sistematice care dă forma unei a treia materii, materia T, un tip de materie-sursă din care se generează celelalte două materii divergente, fizică şi biologică. Celelalte şase implicaţii de implicaţii reprezintă ceea ce Lupaşcu denumeşte para-deducţii . Acestea, spre deosebire de orto-deducţii, nu au o orientare spre un anumit pol - al actualizării, potenţializării, sau al stării T. Orto-deducţiile nu se pot lipsi de para-deducţii şi invers, şi unele şi celelalte sunt articulaţiile logicii contradictoriului.

Pe baza acestor consideraţii, Lupaşcu ne propune distingerea a trei tipuri de spaţio-temporalitate: unul orientat spre actualizarea identităţii şi potenţializarea diversităţii, altul invers, în care se actualizează diversitatea şi se potenţializează identitatea şi unul contradictorial, denumit şi spaţiul T sau spaţiul cuantic. Spaţiul şi timpul nu sunt deci, nici realităţi independente şi absolute, nici intuiţii a priori ale sensibilităţii, precum a susţinut Immanuel Kant, ci “creaţii continue ale fecundităţii deductive a contradictoriului sau a energiei”.

Principiul antagonismului şi logica implicată de acesta, ca şi exprimările şi formalizările echivalente ale principiului şi, nu în ultimul rând, consecinţele constituirii logicii contradictoriului au valoare de prolegomene la un discurs care aduce cu sine o noutate şi mai radicală: trionticitatea .

Miezul tare al discursului lupascian constă, aşadar, în ideea de trionticitate, consolidată pe baza delimitărilor anterioare. Teza conform căreia realitatea este structurată pe trei niveluri de materialitate a fost publicată în 1960, în eseul Cele trei materii, operă de maturitate filosofică care a impresionat foarte mulţi gânditori ai vremii, unul dintre ei considerându-l: “Discursul asupra metodei din timpurile noastre”.

Pentru-a demara proiectul unei viziuni triontice asupra lumii, Lupaşcu porneşte de la câteva premise fundamentale: materia este forma “unei sistematizări energetice dotată cu o anumită rezistenţă”, prin urmare orice obiect al cunoaşterii ni se prezintă ca un sistem sau ansamblu de evenimente energetice, orice sistem fiind rezultatul echilibrării variate dintre forţele antagoniste constituente. Legea sine qua non a oricărei sistematizări este deci aceea că aceasta nu poate fi posibilă fără luarea în calcul a conflictului său inerent, tocmai de aceea principiul esenţial al logicii energiei se numeşte principiul antagonismului. În acest registru conceptual, Lupaşcu reacţionează idiosincrasic la orice tip de monism: nu este posibilă existenţa vreunui sistem experimental simplu sau primar care să limiteze definitiv întreaga realitate, orice sistem este un sistem de sisteme care, la rândul lui, nu poate exista altfel decât în câmpul de manifestare al unor relaţii de antagonism. Complexitatea acestor relaţii formatoare este direct proporţională cu complexitatea sistemelor de sisteme luate în calcul. Examinarea acestor sisteme complexe, înfăţişează “trei orientări privilegiate” ale sistematizării energetice care organizează materia în trei tipuri de structuri. Sunt deci posibile: un sistem sau un sistem de sisteme cu antagonism simetric, al stării T şi alte două sisteme aflate în echilibru disimetric, inverse unul altuia, dominate de un anumit dinamism sau sistem în care relaţiile de antagonism sunt mai slabe, ceea ce le conferă acestora un aspect mai pronunţat de materialitate . Cele trei sistematizări posedă logici sau orientări logice proprii cu legi specifice fiecăreia, cu tipuri de metode conceptuale şi tehnice menite să ajute procesul cunoaşterii lor. Cele trei materii sunt deci: materia-energie (macro)fizică (corespunzătoare orto-deducţiei pozitive), materia-energie biologică (corespunzătoare orto-deducţiei negative), materia-energie cuantică (corespunzătoare orto-deducţiei cuantice) similară energiei psihice.

Menţionăm că acestor trei tipuri de materii le corespund trei tipuri de cauzalitate, trei tipuri de spaţio-temporalitate, trei tipuri de sisteme şi sistemogeneze, trei tipuri de structuri şi tot atâtea tipuri de dialectici.

Umanul este, în concepţia lui Lupaşcu, exponentul ontic al dialecticii T iar tripla sa structurare: fizică, biologică şi psihică îl singularizează în ansamblul lumii ca manifestare plenară a materiei - energie. Şi aici, polarizarea între cele trei constante: A, P, T, este criteriul de disociere dintre diferitele aspecte ale sale: psihismul, esteticul, eticul, religiosul.

Adăugăm faptul că nimic nu este exclus în filosofia lui Lupaşcu, nici măcar actul excluderii. Dincolo de toate acestea, este evident faptul că logica sa energetică este de fapt o ontologie sau o onto-logică atotcuprinzătoare în care se disociază trei dimensiuni ale dinamismului. Iar această construcţie teoretică, în ciuda delimitărilor explicite ale autorului, este cât se poate de consistentă şi de coerentă din punct de vedere logic, tocmai de aceea poate fi considerată o filosofie non-contradictorie a contradictoriului.

Concepte cheie

antagonism energetic

dinamism

terţ inclus'

tridialectică

trionticitate



Afilieri

În timpul vieţii

Membru al Societăţii Franceze de Filosofie
Membru al Grupului Francez de Istorici ai Ştiinţei
Membru al Societăţii Franceze de Estetică
Membru de onoare al Academiei Americane de Ştiinte şi Arte
Membru fondator al Centrului Internaţional de Cercetări şi Studii Transdisciplinare (C.I.R.E.T.)

Post mortem

În 1991 a fost ales membru post-mortem al Academiei Române.

Citate din opera lui Ştefan Lupaşcu

“Cine stăpâneşte contradicţia [...], stăpâneşte lumea.”
Ştefan Lupaşcu, Tragedia energiei

Nu materia conţine o dialectică [...], ci dialectica este cea care creează materia.“ ”
—Ştefan Lupaşcu, Logica dinamică a contradictoriului

“Dacă există energie, există antagonism, contradicţie şi sistem.” ”
—Ştefan Lupaşcu, Cele trei materii

"Totul este legat în lume [...], bineînţeles, dacă lumea e logică." ”
—Ştefan Lupaşcu, Principiul antagonismului şi logica energiei

Opinii despre Ştefan Lupaşcu

"Lupaşcu este cel mai mare gânditor al secolului al XX-lea şi lasă cu mult în urma lui pe de-alde Sartre, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty şi alţi succesori ai fenomenologiei, ori ai structuralismului."
—Georges Mathieu

"Reconcilierea ştiinţei şi a filosofiei, [...] nevoia de a dota ştiinţa cu o teorie capabilă să îmbrăţiseze fenomenele înregistrate – nu există un contemporan care să i se fi dăruit cu mai multă pasiune decât Ştefan Lupaşcu." ”
—Alain Bosquet, Stéphane Lupasco et les trois matières

"Metodologia sa [a lui Ştefan Lupaşcu] de gândire şi interpretare a lumii îşi propune să abordeze epistemologic aproape toate domeniile realităţii şi cunoaşterii umane." ”
—Vasile Sporici, Postfaţă la Logica dinamică a contradictoriului

"Într-o lume în care filosofia se face cu istoria filosofiei, adică prin autofecundaţie, mergând până la autodevorare (Heidegger), [...], el (Ştefan Lupaşcu) aduce prospeţimea şi ingenuitatea unui principiu pe care nu l-a scos din istoria filosofiei, nici din ştiinţe, dar pe care îl rabate asupra amândurora."
Constantin Noica, Cuvânt înainte la Logica dinamică a contradictoriului





Monday, April 26, 2010

Lucian Blaga


 Lucian Blaga was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the inter-bellum period. He was a philosopher and writer acclaimed for his originality, a university professor and a diplomat. He was born on May 9, 1895 in Lancrăm, near Alba Iulia, Romania, into a family of priests. Although he could speak he did not speak any words until he was four, and he later described his early childhood as "under the sign of the incredible absence of word". In the poem "Self-Portrait" he describes himself : "Lucian Blaga is silent like a swan."



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His elementary education was in Sebeş (1902-1906), after which he attended the "Andrei Şaguna" school in Braşov (1906-1914), under the supervision of a relative, Iosif Blaga, who happened to be the author of the first Romanian treatise on the theory of drama. At the outbreak of the First World War, he began theological studies at Sibiu, where he graduated in 1917. From 1917 to 1920, he attended courses at the University of Vienna, where he studied philosophy and obtained his PhD.

Upon returning to the re-unified Romania, he contributed to the Romanian press in Transylvania, being the editor of the magazines Culture in Cluj and The Banat in Lugoj.

In 1926, he became involved in Romanian diplomacy, occupying successive posts at Romania's legations in Warsaw, Prague, Lisbon, Bern and Vienna. He was chosen member of the Romanian Academy in 1937. His acceptance speech was entitled Elogiul satului românesc (In Praise of the Romanian Village).

In 1939, he became professor of cultural philosophy at the University of Cluj, temporarily located in Sibiu in the years following the Second Vienna Award. In Sibiu he edited, beginning in 1943, the magazine Saeculum, which was published annually.



He was dismissed from his university professor chair in 1948 and he worked as librarian for the branch department (Cluj) of the History Institute of the Romanian Academy. Until 1960, he was allowed to publish only translations.

In 1956, he was nominated to the Nobel Prize for Literature on the proposal of Bazil Munteanu of France and Rosa del Conte of Italy, but it seems the idea was of Mircea Eliade. Still, the Romanian Communist government sent two emissaries to Sweden to protest the nomination, because Blaga was considered an idealist philosopher, and his poems were forbidden until 1962.

He died of cancer on May 6, 1961, and is buried in Lancrăm, Romania.

The University of Sibiu bears his name today.





Literature

Poetry

1919 - Poems of Light ( Poemele luminii );

1921 - The Prophet's Footsteps ( Paşii profetului );

1924 - In the Great Passage ( În marea trecere );

1929 - In Praise of Sleep ( Laudă somnului );

1933 - At the Watershed ( La cumpăna apelor ) ;

1938 - At the Courtyard of Yearning ( La curţile dorului ) ;

1943 - Unsuspected Steps ( Nebănuitele trepte );

1982 - 3 Posthumous Poems;

Drama

1921 - Zamolxis, A Pagan Mystery

1923 - Whirling Waters

1925 - Daria, The Deed, Resurrection

1927 - Manole the Craftsman ( Mesterul Manole )

1930 - The Children's Crusade

1934 - Avram Iancu

1944 - Noah's Ark

1964 - Anton Pann - published posthumously.

Philosophy

His philosophical work is grouped in three trilogies:

a cunoaşterii (knowledge) (1943)

a culturii (culture) (1944)

a valorilor (values) (1946).

His fourth, cosmologica (cosmology), remained in the project stage.

Philosophical works

1924 - "The Philosophy of Style"

1925 - "The Original Phenomenon" and "The Facets of a Century"

1931 - "The Dogmatic Aeon"

1933 - "Luciferian Knowledge"

1934 - "Transcendental Censorship"

1936 - "Horizon and Style" and "The Mioritic Space"

1937 - "The Genesis of Metaphor and the Meaning of Culture"

1939 - "Art and Value"

1940 - "The Divine Differentials"

1942 - "Religion and Spirit" and "Science and Creation"

1943 - The Trilogy of Knowledge (The Dogmatic Aeon, Luciferian Knowledge, Transcendent Censorship: in 1983 On Philosophical Cognition and Experiment and the Mathematical Spirit added by his daughter)

1944 - The Trilogy of Culture (Horizon and Style, The Mioritic Space, The Genesis of Metaphor and the Meaning of Culture)

1946 - The Trilogy of Values (Science and Creation, Magical Thinking and Religion, Art and Value)

1959 - Historical Existence

1966 - Romanian Thought in Transylvania in the 18th Century

1968 - Horizons and Stages

1969 - Experiment and the Mathematical Spirit

1972 - Sources (essays, lectures, articles)

1974 - On Philosophical Cognition

1977 - Philosophical Essays

1983 - The Cosmological Trilogy (The Divine Differentials, Anthropological Aspects, Historical Existence)

Other Works

1919 - Stones for My Temple, aphorisms

1945 - Discoblus, aphorisms

1965 - The Chronicle and Song of Ages, memoirs

1977 - The Élan of the Island, aphorisms

1990 - Charon's Ferry, novel

Lucian Blaga



Lucian Blaga (n. 9 mai 1895 la Lancrăm, lângă Sebeş, judeţul Alba - d. 6 mai 1961 la Cluj) a fost un filozof, poet, dramaturg, traducător, jurnalist, profesor universitar şi diplomat român. Personalitate impunătoare şi polivalentă a culturii interbelice, Lucian Blaga a marcat perioada respectivă prin elemente de originalitate compatibile cu înscrierea sa în universalitate.



Primii ani

S-a născut la Lancrăm, lângă Alba Iulia, fiind al nouălea copil al unei familii de preoţi, fiul lui Isidor Blaga şi al Anei (n. Moga), de origine aromână. Copilăria i-a stat, după cum mărturiseşte el însuşi, "sub semnul unei fabuloase absenţe a cuvântului", viitorul poet – care se va autodefini mai târziu într-un vers celebru "Lucian Blaga e mut ca o lebădă" – neputând să vorbească până la vârsta de patru ani. Mama poetului, Ana Blaga, moare la Sibiu la vârsta de 74 de ani în 1933. În luna august 1949, fratele poetului, Login Blaga, moare în Sibiu.

Primele clase le-a făcut la Sebeş, la şcoala primară germană (1902-1906), după care a urmat Liceul "Andrei Şaguna" din Braşov (1906–1914), unde era profesor ruda sa, Iosif Blaga, autorul primului tratat românesc de teoria dramei. Încă de pe băncile liceului se va familiariza cu opera lui Friedrich Schiller.

Debutul

A debutat în ziarele arădene Tribuna, cu poezia Pe ţărm (1910), şi în Românul, cu studiul Reflecţii asupra intuiţiei lui Bergson (1914). După moartea tatălui, familia se mută la Sebeş în 1909. În anul 1911 călătoreşte în Italia, unde îşi petrece timpul în librării, căutând cărţi de filosofie, şi vizitând vestigiile istorice ale acestei ţări.

Studii

A urmat cursurile Facultăţii de Teologie din Sibiu şi Oradea în perioada 1914–1916, pe care le-a finalizat cu licenţă în 1917. A studiat filosofia şi biologia la Universitatea din Viena între anii 1916 şi 1920, obţinând titlul de doctor în filosofie. Aici a cunoscut-o pe Cornelia Brediceanu, cea care îi va deveni soţie. A revenit în ţară în ajunul Marii Uniri. În anul 1916, în timpul verii, Blaga vizitează Viena, unde descoperă Expresionismul.

Cariera literară

Activitatea publică şi academică

Imaginea lui Lucian Blaga pe o marcă poştală din Republica Moldova

Publică la Sibiu, în 1919, placheta de versuri Poemele luminii (reeditată în acelaşi an la Cartea Românească, în Bucureşti), precum şi culegerea de aforisme Pietre pentru templul meu. Prima sa dramă, Zamolxe, îi apare în ziarul Voinţa (1920), iar în volum în 1921, la Cluj, la Editura Institutului de Arte Grafice „Ardealul”. Academia Română îi decernează Premiul Adamachi pentru debut (1921). Universitatea din Cluj îi premiază piesa Zalmoxe (1922). I se tipăresc primele traduceri de poezie în limba germană în revista cernauţeană Die Brucke (1922) (Podul). În 1924-1925, locuieşte în Lugoj. A fost redactor la ziarele Voinţa şi Patria, membru in comitetul de direcţie al revistei Cultura, colaborator permanent la publicaţiile Gândirea, Adevărul literar şi artistic şi Cuvântul.

După Dictatul de la Viena, se află în refugiu la Sibiu, însoţind Universitatea din Cluj (1940–1946). Conferenţiază la Facultatea de Litere şi Filosofie din Cluj (1946–1948). Are un rol major în formarea tinerilor care fac parte din Cercul literar de la Sibiu şi o mare influenţă asupra lui Ion Desideriu Sârbu. Revenit în România reîntregită, s-a dăruit cauzei presei româneşti din Transilvania, fiind redactor la revistele Cultura din Cluj şi Banatul din Lugoj. A fost ales membru al Academiei Române în anul 1937. Discursul de recepţie şi l-a intitulat Elogiul satului românesc.

În anul 1939 a devenit profesor de filosofia culturii la Universitatea din Cluj, mutată temporar la Sibiu în anii ce au urmat dictatului de la Viena (1940–1944). La Sibiu redactează, începând cu 1943, revista Saeculum, care va apărea un an. A funcţionat ca profesor universitar până în 1948, când a fost îndepărtat cu brutalitate de la catedră. Motivul este de natură politică: se pare că Blaga a refuzat invitaţia de a conduce Partidul Naţional Popular, un satelit al Partidului Comunist. Împreună cu el au fost înlăturaţi şi conferenţiarul şi discipolul său, Ion Desideriu Sârbu, şi profesorii universitari Liviu Călin şi Nicolae Mărgineanu.

Activitatea diplomatică

În anul 1926 a intrat în diplomaţie, ocupând succesiv posturi de ataşat cultural la legaţiile ţării noastre din Varşovia, Praga, Lisabona, Berna şi Viena. A fost ataşat şi consilier de presă la Varşovia, Praga şi Berna (1926–1936), subsecretar de stat la Ministerul de Externe (1936–1938) şi ministru plenipotenţiar al României în Portugalia (1938–1939).

Luntrea lui Caron

Din 1948, fiind îndepărtat de la catedră, a lucrat în cadrul filialei din Cluj a Academiei Române ca bibliograf. Devine cercetător la Institutul de Istorie şi Filosofie (1949–1951). Apoi bibliotecar-şef (1951–1954) şi director-adjunct (1954–1959) la filiala clujeană a Bibliotecii Academiei. Nu îi mai sunt publicate volumele şi preferă să se ocupe de traduceri. În această perioadă a finalizat traducerea piesei Faust de Goethe, iar în 1958 apare primul volum din Opere de G.E. Lessing în traducerea lui Lucian Blaga. A tradus poeţi germani clasici şi moderni. Poeziile scrise acum vor fi publicate postum. Tot în această perioadă scrie romanul cu tentă autobiografică Luntrea lui Caron, publicat de asemenea postum. A trecut la cele veşnice pe 6 mai 1961, in Cluj. Lucian Blaga a fost înmormântat în ziua sa de naştere, 9 mai, în cimitirul din Lancrăm.

Propus pentru premiul Nobel

În anul 1956 Lucian Blaga a fost propus de Rosa del Conte şi de criticul Basil Munteanu, dar se pare că ideea a pornit chiar de la Mircea Eliade pentru a primi premiul Nobel pentru literatură. Cei doi nu locuiau în România, Rosa del Conte era autoarea unei cărţi despre Eminescu, iar Basil Munteanu locuia la Paris, unde se exilase din motive politice. Autorităţile comuniste nu au sprijinit în niciun fel aceste gesturi, pentru că Blaga era considerat un filosof idealist, iar poeziile lui au fost interzise până la ediţia din 1962 îngrijită de George Ivaşcu. Rosa del Conte a recunoscut că paternitatea ideii îi aparţine lui Mircea Eliade, cel care publicase la moartea lui Blaga, în 1961, un emoţionant necrolog intitulat Tăcerile lui Lucian Blaga.

Opera

Volume de versuri

1919 - Poemele luminii

1921 - Paşii profetului

1924 - În marea trecere

1929 - Lauda somnului

1933 - La cumpăna apelor

1938 - La curţile dorului

1942 - Poezii, ediţie definitivă

1943 - Nebănuitele trepte

Cicluri de versuri editate postum

Vârsta de fier 1940-1944

Cântecul focului

Corăbii cu cenuşă

Ce aude unicornul

Dramaturgie

1921 - Zamolxe, mister păgân

1923 - Tulburarea apelor, dramă

1925 - Daria, dramă în patru acte

1925 - Ivanca

1925 - Învierea, pantomimă în patru tablouri şi Fapta, joc dramatic

1927 - Meşterul Manole, dramă în cinci acte

1930 - Cruciada copiilor

1934 - Avram Iancu, dramă într-un prolog şi trei faze

1942 - Opera dramatică, 2 vol.

1944 - Arca lui Noe

1964 - Anton Pann, dramă într-un prolog şi patru faze (postumă)

Filosofie

Creaţia sa filosofică este grupată în trei trilogii:

1943 - Trilogia cunoaşterii în trei volume: Eonul dogmatic, Cunoaşterea luciferică, Cenzura transcendentă.

1944 - Trilogia culturii in trei volume: Orizont şi stil, Spaţiul mioritic, Geneza metaforei şi sensul culturii

1946 - Trilogia valorilor, Ştiinţă şi creaţie, Gândire magică şi religie, Artă şi valoare.

Cea de-a patra, Trilogia cosmologică, a rămas în stadiu de proiect. Din ea autorul a publicat un singur volum, Diferenţialele divine, primul din această ultimă trilogie.

Aforisme

1919 - Pietre pentru templul meu

1926 - Ferestre colorate, însemnări şi fragmente

1945 - Discobolul, aforisme şi însemnări

1977 - Elanul insulei, editată postum

Proza

Hronicul şi cântecul vârstelor, volum autobiografic, editat postum, 1965

Luntrea lui Caron, roman, editat postum, 1990, ediţia a II-a, 1998, ediţia a III-a, 2006

Volume de eseuri şi studii filosofice

1922 - Cultură şi cunoştinţă

1924 - Filosofia stilului

1925 - Fenomenul originar

1925 - Feţele unui veac

1926 - Daimonion

1931 - Eonul dogmatic

1933 - Cunoaşterea luciferică

1934 - Censura transcendentă

1934 - Orizont şi stil

1936 - Spaţiul mioritic

1936 - Elogiul satului românesc, discursul de recepţie la admiterea sa în Academia Română

1937 - Geneza metaforei şi sensul culturii

1939 - Artă şi valoare

1940 - Diferenţialele divine

1941 - Despre gândirea magică

1941 - Religie şi spirit

1942 - Ştiinţă şi creaţie

1947 - Despre conştiinţa filosofică

1948 - Aspecte antropologice

Eseuri publicate postum

1966 - Gândirea românească în Transilvania în secolul al XVIII-lea

1968 - Zări şi etape

1969 - Experimentul şi spiritul matematic

1972 - Isvoade

1977 - Fiinţa istorică

1977 - Încercări filosofice

Volume traduse în limba franceză

1988 - L'Eon dogmatique, (Librairie Roumaine Antitotalitaire, trad. Georges Piscoci-Danesco et collab.).

1989 - L'Éloge du village roumain, (Librairie Roumaine Antitotalitaire, trad. Georges Piscoci-Danesco et collab.).

1992 - L'Étoile la plus triste, (La Différence, trad. Sanda Stolojan).

1993 - L'Être historique, (Librairie Roumaine Antitotalitaire, trad. Mariana-Georgeta Piscoci).

1993 - Les Différentielles divines, (Librairie Roumaine Antitotalitaire, trad. Georges Piscoci-Danesco et collab.).

1995 - Trilogie de la Connaissance, (Librairie Roumaine Antitotalitaire, trad. Georges Piscoci-Danesco et collab.).

1996 - Trilogie de la Culture, (Librairie Roumaine Antitotalitaire, trad. Georges Piscoci-Danesco et collab.).

Traduceri

J. W. Goethe, Faust, 1955

Din lirica universală, 1957

Din lirica engleză, 1958

Corespondenţă

Corespondenţă, 1989

Domniţa nebănuitelor trepte. Epistolar Lucian Blaga - Domniţa Gherghinescu-Vania (1941-1948), 1995

De amicitia: Lucian Blaga - Ion Breazu (corespondenţă), 1995

Corespondenţă de familie, 2000

Ediţii de referinţă

Opere, ediţie îngrijită de Dorli Blaga, vol. I-XII, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1974-1995

Opere, ediţie critică şi studiu introductiv de George Gană, vol. I-V, Bucureşti, Editura Minerva, 1982-1993

Premii literare şi distincţii. Afilieri

1935 - Primeşte Premiul C. Hamagiu al Academiei Române pentru activitatea dramatică şi poetică din ultimii ani.

1936 - Este ales membru titular al Academiei Române.

1949 - Academia Română îi încredinţează redactarea a două capitole din Istoria filosofiei româneşti.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Carol Popp de Szathmary - the author of world's first war reportage

Carol Popp de Szathmary ((November 1, 1812, Cluj - July 3, 1887, Bucharest), was a Romanian painter, graphic artist, lithographer, topographer and photographer, the first art photographer in the Kingdom of Romania and the author of world's first war reportage (Russian-Turkish Crimean War, 1853-1856).

Carol Popp de Szathmary was born in Cluj in 1812. He did studies school in Cluj, at the Reformed College. After obtaining the baccalaureate, he tried to enter the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire, but he failed and returned in his hometown, where studied law at the University of Cluj. After several years working as a clerk in the Transylvanian administration, Carol Popp gets hired at the imperial chancellery in Vienna. Passion for painting pushed it to make several trips through Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy. Going back in Transylvania, he painted a series of portraits of dignitaries of Transyvania's Dieta (parliament).

At the invitation of Prince George Bibescu - future ruler of Principality of Wallachia, he reaches Bucharest, where he made his the first daguerreotypes and published the volume "Transylvania in images", made with this technique. In 1847 he was the travel companion of great piano player Franz Liszt in his tournament by the Principality of Moldavia, Bukovina and Russia.

In 1853 made the first war photographs, in the Crimean War, in which he participated as war correspondent. His works, paintings and photos were collected in a new album which was presented at the International Exhibition of Paris of 1855 - then offered personally to the French emperor Napoleon III and Queen Victoria of England. In 1864 he participated to the official delegation of the United Romanian Principalities to Constantinople, where the High Gate recognized Alexandru Ioan Cuza as ruler. He is also created of the United Principalities logo.

He accompanied the new prince of the Romanians, Prince Carol of Hohenzollern, in his travel through the Kingdom of Romania, becoming the painter of the royal court in Bucharest.

 Besides photo-stamps representing Bucharest those times, and made an album, "Costumes of Romania", a paper that gives personally to the Kings of Belgium and the Netherlands. In a trip to the East (Turkey, Afghanistan, China), Chinese emperor offered him the job of photographer of the imperial court, but he declined the offer, then returned home.

He made a series of art exhibitions in Bucharest, Vienna, Cluj, Târgu-Mureş, and in some towns in Austria. Carol Popp de Szathmary participated in the Rusian-Turkish war, known as the War of Independence as a photographer and war correspondent. He organized meanwhile, a photographic workshop in Cluj, in Biasini Hotel building, located on Avram Iancu street. In 1881, he organized the ceremony of coronation of the first king of Romania, King Carol I and Queen Elizabeth. He died July 3, 1887, and was buried in the Evangelical-Lutheran cemetery in Bucharest.

Carol Popp de Szathmáry-primul fotoreporter de razboi din lume

 Carol Popp de Szathmáry (n. 1 noiembrie 1812, Cluj - d. 3 iulie 1887, Bucureşti) a fost un pictor şi grafician transilvănean, primul fotograf de artă şi documentarist din Regatul Român şi unul dintre primii zece fotografi din Europa.

Pictor

 Primele studii le-a făcut în Transilvania, apoi (1853) a lucrat cu Anton Chladek la Pesta. A călătorit intens în ţară şi străinătate, de unde a adus numeroase imagini pitoreşti cu caracter de reportaj, dintre care cele executate în acuarelă se disting prin vervă, spontaneitate şi poezie. În pictură, limbajul său este migălos şi greoi, dar vădind acelaşi spirit de observaţie ascuţit, mai ales în scenele reprezentând bâlciuri sau târguri. Ca litograf, Szathmáry a lăsat un Album cu vederi din Transilvania (1841), precum şi portretele deputaţilor din Dieta Transilvaniei. În 1860 a realizat o hartă topografică a ţării. Opera sa mai cuprinde cromolitografii şi acuarele înfăţişând tipuri şi porturi populare cu un caracter exclusiv documentar.

Fotograf

În anul 1843 a realizat primele dagherotipii, iar în urma unor cercetări, a realizat şi primele tabotipii.

În perioada 1860-1870, Carol Popp de Szathmary a publicat un volum cu 100 de fotografii. A fost printre primii 10 fotografi din Europa şi a realizat primul reportaj fotografic de război din lume în timpul Războiului Crimeii.

A călătorit în China, iar cu acordul Ţarului Rusiei, a ajuns şi în Siberia, unde a realizat fotografii artistice.

Distincţii

În anul 1855 a primit patru medalii, pentru albumele de fotografie realizate şi pentru activitatea sa fotografică, medaliile fiind acordate de Regina Angliei, Împăratul Austriei, Napoleon al III-lea al Franţei şi Regele Spaniei.

Activitate culturală

În anul 1860 a contribuit la înfiinţarea Bukuresti Magyar Közlöny, prima asociaţie culturală a maghiarilor din Bucureşti.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Johnny Weissmuller


Johnny Weissmuller (born Johann Peter Weißmüller; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was a Romanian-born German-American swimmer and actor. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven world records. After his swimming career, he became the sixth actor to portray Tarzan in films, a role he played in twelve motion pictures. Dozens of other actors have also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller is by far the best known. His character's distinctive, ululating Tarzan yell is still often used in films.




Early life

Weissmüller was an ethnic German born to Peter Weissmüller and his wife Elisabeth Kersch, in the Romanian part of Banat, Austria-Hungary. The ship's roster from his family's arrival at Ellis Island lists his birthplace as Međa, in border area of Serbia. It has been claimed that he was actually named Peter by his parents, but when he arrived in the US he used his brother's name, Johnny, because it was more American. However, the records of St Rochus Church in Freidorf show that Johann, son of Peter Weissmüller and Elizabeth Kersch, was baptized there on 6 May 1904. The passenger manifest of the S.S. Rotterdam, which arrived in New York on 26 January 1905, lists Peter Weissmüller, a 29-year-old laborer, his 24-year-old wife Elisabeth, and seven-month-old Johann, The family is listed as Germans, last residence Temesvár, despite the fact that they lived for a long time in Freidorf (Szabadfalu). They were going to join their brother-in-law Johann Ott of Windber, Pennsylvania. On November 5, 1905, Johann Peter Weissmüller was baptized at St John Cantius Catholic Church in Windber. In the 1910 census, Peter and Elizabeth Weisenmüller as well as John and Eva Ott were living at 1521 Cleveland Ave in the 22nd Ward of Chicago, with sons John, age six, born in Temesvár and Peter Jr., age five, born in Illinois. Peter Weissmüller and John Ott were both brewers, Ott immigrating in 1902, Weissmüller in 1904. The ethnic group known as Banat Swabians had lived for several centuries in that region and developed a distinctive dialect and cultural traits.
 
When Weissmüller was a small child, the family emigrated to the United States aboard the S.S. Rotterdam as steerage passengers. They left Rotterdam on January 14, 1905, and arrived at Ellis Island in New York harbor twelve days later as Peter, Elisabeth and Johann Weissmüller. The passenger list records them as ethnic Germans and citizens of Romania. After a brief stay in Chicago, visiting relatives, they moved to the coal mining town of Windber, Pennsylvania. (For most of Weissmüller's career, show business biographies incorrectly listed him as having been born in Pennsylvania. Some sources state that Weissmüller lied about his birthplace in order to ensure his place on the US Olympic swimming team.) Peter Weissmuller worked as a miner, and his youngest son, Peter Weissmüller, Jr., was born in Windber on 3 September 1905. Peter Jr. is listed on one census as born in Illinois.


At age nine, Weissmüller contracted polio. At the suggestion of his doctor, he took up swimming to help battle the disease. After the family moved from Western Pennsylvania to Chicago, Weissmüller continued swimming and eventually earned a spot on the YMCA swim team.While living in Chicago, Weissmüller's father owned a bar for a time and his mother became head cook at a famed restaurant. After Peter's business failed, he began drinking heavily and abusing both his wife and children. Elizabeth Weissmüller eventually filed for, and was granted, a divorce (various biographies erroneously state that Weissmüller's father died of tuberculosis leaving her a widow). According to draft registration records for World War I, Peter and Elizabeth were apparently still together as late as 1917. On his paperwork, Peter was listed as a brewer, working for the Elston and Fullerton Brewery. He and his family were living at 226 West North Avenue in Chicago. In his book, Tarzan, My Father, Johnny Weissmuller Jr. stated that although rumors of Peter Weissmüller living to "a ripe old age, remarrying along the way and spawning a large brood of little Weissmüllers" were reported, no one in the family was aware of his ultimate fate. Peter signed his consent for 19-year old John "Weissmuller"'s passport application in 1924, preceding Johnny's Olympic competition in France. In the 1930 federal census, Elizabeth Weissmüller, age 49, has listed with her, her sons John P. and Peter J., and Peter's wife Dorothy. Elizabeth is listed as a widow.

Careers

Swimming


As a teen, Weissmuller attended Lane Technical H.S. before dropping out to work various jobs including a stint as a lifeguard at a Lake Michigan beach. While working as an elevator operator and bellboy at the Illinois Athletic Club, Weissmuller caught the eye of swim coach William Bachrach. Bachrach trained Weissmuller and in August 1921, Weissmuller won the national championships in the 50-yard and 220-yard distances. Though he was foreign-born, Weissmuller gave his birthplace as Tanneryville, Pennsylvania, and his birth date as that of his younger brother, Peter Weissmuller. This was to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of the United States Olympic team, and was a critical issue in being issued an American passport. (This comment seems to be contradicted by data on his actual passport application - On his 1924 passport application, he listed his date of birth as June 2, 1904, and his place of birth as Windbar, Pennsylvania. His father, Peter signed an affidavit to this effect, giving his 19-year-old son permission to travel abroad to participate in the Paris Olympics and for other competitions in England and Belgium. His passport was issued in May, 1924.)

On July 9, 1922, Weissmuller broke Duke Kahanamoku's world record on the 100-meters freestyle, swimming it in 58.6 seconds. He won the title in that distance at the 1924 Summer Olympics, beating Kahanamoku for the gold. He also won the 400-meters freestyle and the 4 x 200 meters relay. As a member of the American water polo team, he also won a bronze medal. Four years later, at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, he won another two Olympic titles.
In all, he won five Olympic gold medals, one bronze medal, won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven world records. Johnny Weissmuller never lost a race and retired from his amateur swimming career undefeated.


Motion pictures

In 1929, Weissmuller signed a contract with BVD to be a model and representative. He traveled throughout the country doing swim shows, handing out leaflets promoting that brand of swimwear, signing autographs and going on talk shows. In that same year, he made his first motion picture appearance as an Adonis, wearing only a fig leaf, in a movie entitled Glorifying the American Girl. He appeared as himself in the first of several Crystal Champions movie shorts featuring Weissmuller and other Olympic champions at Silver Springs, Florida.
He co-starred with Esther Williams in Billy Rose's Aquacade during the San Francisco World's Fair, 1939–41, pursuing her throughout a span of two years.


His acting career began when he signed a seven year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and played the role of Tarzan in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932). The movie was a huge success and Weissmuller became an overnight international sensation. Tarzan author, Edgar Rice Burroughs, was pleased with Weissmuller, although he so hated the studio's depiction of a Tarzan who barely spoke English that he created his own concurrent Tarzan series filmed on location in Central American jungles and starring Herman Brix as a suitably articulate version of the character.

Weissmuller starred in six Tarzan movies for MGM with actress Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane (with whom he had a brief affair) and Cheeta the Chimpanzee. The last three also included Johnny Sheffield as Boy. Then, in 1942, Weissmuller went to RKO and starred in six more Tarzan movies with markedly reduced production values. Unlike MGM, RKO allowed Weissmuller to play other roles, though a three picture contract with Pine-Thomas Productions led to only one film, Swamp Fire, being made, co-starring Buster Crabbe. Sheffield appeared as Boy in the first five features for RKO. Another co-star was Brenda Joyce, who played Jane in Weissmuller's last four Tarzan movies. In a total of twelve Tarzan films, Weissmuller earned an estimated $2,000,000 and established himself as what many consider the definitive Tarzan. Although not the first Tarzan in movies, (that honor went to Elmo Lincoln), he was the first to be associated with the now traditional ululating, yodeling Tarzan yell. (During an appearance on television's The Mike Douglas Show in the 1970s, Weissmuller explained how the famous yell was created. Recordings of three vocalists were spliced together to get the effect—a soprano, an alto, and a hog caller).
When Weissmuller finally left that role, he immediately traded his loincloth costume for a slouch hat and safari suit for the role of Jungle Jim (1948) for Columbia. He made thirteen Jungle Jim films between (1948) and (1954). Within the next year, he appeared in three more jungle movies, playing himself. In 1955, he began production of the Jungle Jim television adventure series for Screen Gems, a film subsidiary of Columbia. His costars were Martin Huston and Dean Fredericks. The show produced only twenty-six episodes, which were subsequently played repeatedly on network and syndicated television. Aside from a first screen appearance as Adonis and the role of Johnny Duval in the 1946 film Swamp Fire, Weissmuller played only three roles in films during the heyday of his Hollywood career: Tarzan, Jungle Jim, and himself.


After movies

According to David Wallechinsky's Complete Book of the Olympics, while playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Cuba in 1958, Weissmuller's golf cart was suddenly captured by rebel soldiers. Weissmuller sized up the situation, got out of the cart and gave his trademark Tarzan yell. The shocked rebels soon began to jump up and down, calling "Tarzan! Welcome to Cuba!" Johnny and his companions were not only not kidnapped, but were given a rebel escort to the golf course.

In the late 1950s, Weissmuller moved back to Chicago and started a swimming pool company. He lent his name to other business ventures, but did not have a great deal of success. He retired in 1965 and moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was Founding Chairman of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.


Sometime in the 1960s, Weissmuller built a doomed tourist attraction called Tropical Wonderland, aka Tarzan's Jungleland, on US 1 in Titusville, Florida. In September 1966, Weissmuller joined former screen Tarzans James Pierce and Jock Mahoney to appear with Ron Ely as part of the publicity for the upcoming premiere of the Tarzan TV series. The producers also approached Weissmuller to guest star as Tarzan's father, but nothing came of it.

In 1970, he attended the British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, where he was presented to Queen Elizabeth II. That same year, he made a cameo appearance with former co-star Maureen O'Sullivan in The Phynx (1970).
Weissmuller lived in Florida until the end of 1973, then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked as a greeter at the MGM Grand Hotel for a time. In 1976, he appeared for the last time in a motion picture, playing a movie crewman who is fired by a movie mogul, played by Art Carney, in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and he also made his final public appearance in that year when he was inducted into the Body Building Guild Hall of Fame.


Personal life

Weissmuller had five wives: band and club singer Bobbe Arnst (married 1931 – divorced 1933); actress Lupe Vélez (married 1933 – divorced 1939); Beryl Scott (married 1939 – divorced 1948); Allene Gates (married 1948 – divorced 1962); and Maria Baumann (married 1963 – his death 1984).

With his third wife, Beryl, he had three children, Johnny Weissmuller, Jr. (September 23, 1940 – July 27, 2006), Wendy Anne Weissmuller (b. June 1, 1942), and Heidi Elizabeth Weissmuller (July 31, 1944 – November 19, 1962).

Declining health and death


In 1974, Weissmuller broke both his hip and leg, marking the beginning of years of declining health. While hospitalized he learned that, in spite of his strength and lifelong daily regimen of swimming and exercise, he had a serious heart condition. In 1977, Weissmuller suffered a series of strokes. In 1979, he entered the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California for several weeks before moving with his last wife, Maria, to Acapulco, Mexico, the location of his last Tarzan movie.

On January 20, 1984, Weissmuller died from pulmonary edema at the age of 79. He was buried in Acapulco at Valley of the Light Cemetery. As his coffin was lowered into the ground, a recording of the Tarzan yell he invented was played three times, at his request.

Influence

His former co-star and movie son, Johnny Sheffield, wrote of him, "I can only say that working with Big John was one of the highlights of my life. He was a Star (with a capital "S") and he gave off a special light and some of that light got into me. Knowing and being with Johnny Weissmuller during my formative years had a lasting influence on my life."

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Johnny Weissmuller has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.