streams of philosophy (may 22, 2010). the modernity of kant. a broadcast on radio romania...

7/31/2019 Streams of Philosophy (May 22, 2010). The Modernity of Kant. A broadcast on Radio Romania Cultural. Moderato

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Streams of Philosophy (May 22, 2010)

About Kant's modernity

A broadcast on Radio Romania Cultural.Moderator: Constantin Aslam

Guest: Marcel Chelba

Transcript, footnotes and translation from Romanian: Marcel Chelba.A record of this radio program can be heard on Internet:

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CA Good find dear lovers of philosophy. The microphone is:

Constantin Aslam. Director of broadcasting: my colleague,

Ruxandra Mocanu. As many of you have certainly noticed

that in the Romanian thinking after 1990, apart from

academic philosophy, maintained and cultivated for

formative purposes, have appeared a number of thinkers

whom we might call metaphorical independents intellectuals with various academic backgrounds, attached

to philosophy for the sake of philosophy itself, as once said

Mircea Vulc nescu people doing philosophy simply to

agree with themselves and their world. Some of these

cases are notorious. We all know for example the case of

Noica non-university philosopher, but, paradoxically, who

made a philosophical school. Or to give another two

random examples: Camil Petrescu and Alexandru Bogza. Inrecent years we have all witnessed the strangeness case of

Alexandru Dragomir, a professional thinker, a former

student of Heidegger, who wrote philosophy for himself and

had no ambition to reach an author. Just chance made that

after his death, with the well-known volumes published by

Humanitas, we can look to the privacy of a thought driven

by the natural purpose of self-understanding, for which

philosophy is both a way of living and a guide in piercing

the mystery of life and death. Well, today's guest is also a

professional thinker, physicist by profession and

philosopher not engaged in academic work, one of those
http://www.trilulilu.ro/kantinomus/617c9ee2df87dahttp://www.trilulilu.ro/kantinomus/617c9ee2df87dahttp://www.trilulilu.ro/kantinomus/617c9ee2df87dahttp://www.trilulilu.ro/kantinomus/617c9ee2df87da


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independent thinkers for which philosophy problems can

not be resolved without their own research and reflections.

And because today's guest has embarked on a

philosophical investigation of its own, based on Kant andthe broader relationship of philosophy to science, I propose

you today to watch a debate on our need of Kant and

critical thinking in a world where the idea of rational law

and moral duty came into obscurity, if not even completely

abandoned. Today's guest is Mr. Marcel Chelba, which is

currently in Resita the city where he lives. I greet Mr.

Chelba on my behalf and yours: Hello Mr. Marcel Chelba!

MC Hello Mr. Aslam!CA I found that the technical requirements are met,

therefore we can already start the debate Mr. Chelba, and I

propose attack our topic today as I said, the need of Kant

and critical thinking in a world that seems to be governed

of some principles that are contrary to Kantian philosophy

but let's start this debate in a roundabout way, that is, I

would propose you to recall, for listeners, in short, your

meeting with Mr. Noica at P ltini on the summer of 1987,

an episode whom otherwise you evoked in the volume of

testimonies about Noica (The Cultural Model Noica) ,

published last year on the occasion of Noica's Centenary,

edited by Mr. Marin Diaconu, which I recently presented on

the radio. Please Mr. Chelba.

MC I met Mr. Noica since 1984. That meeting as I reported in

the text to which you refer, namely, Last idea of Constantin

Noica and endless road of philosophy, was held in the

summer of '87, less than three months before he died... the

patriarch of Romanian philosophy, so to speak. That

meeting was really... remained deeply imprinted in my

memory... for those who have not read that article I would

like to remind, this is a brief idea that Noica told me during

our last walk around P ltini, on the reason that this would

be his ultimate idea and does not know to whom to give it,like heritage. Of course, I never felt myself designated to

receive such a legacy of ideas

CA And, finally, an idea as a task, so to speak.

MC Exactly. But I thought long time that, certainly he said


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this idea all those who have visited him and that, in fact, it

can not be lost, even I would not understand it, I'd forget it

or lose it in one way or another. Indeed, that idea did not

particularly concern me, until a later, after almost 11 years,when I did a study on the antinomies of Kant, in the

Critique of Pure Reason then I realized, I suddenly

remembered that distinction of Noica, that was about,

namely, he said, between the happy natures and unhappy

natures. In the chapter unhappy nature came especially the

scientists, he said, those who deal with finite, which tries to

solve immediate problems, concrete, but are always

exasperated that they fall on new problems and that thisdesire of enlightened and settlement is postponed

indefinitely. For them, said Noica, infinity is out they

always run to this point on the horizon but never fail to

achieve. And happy natures1, he said, would be

philosophers, first and foremost, and theologians, and he

hesitate about artists, and even certain types of scholars,

scientists so he do not condemn the entire science as

being outside...CA Correct.

MC ... outside of this dimension of a global knowledge

(synthetic) of nature.

CA What comes to mind, Mr. Chelba, however, is that you

stay at the interregnum, so to speak...

MC Exactly...

CA Isn't it?

MC I came from physics and...

CA You came from physics and, by your professional

background you were an unhappy nature, but also a happy

nature, becouse you cultivate philosophy because

philosophy was the purpose for which you have studied

physics, as you confessed in this article ie, in other words,

your motivation for studing physics was a philosophical

one. Isn't it?MC Yes, but that was my particular condition that few

1 Ie, those for which infinity is inward. (That remark I have not

gotten to do, but results in context and is mentioned by Mr. Aslam

something later.)


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knew it, of my teachers that I actually, have come to

physics for philosophy, and because of this I had to face

many ironies and... finally, some drawbacks. But what is

important in this discussion? Then I made theconnection... while... at that time when I have... then, in

'87, I only knew, of course, "Journal of P ltini" and some

newer works of Noica, those after 1965 onwards. I had

found yet anywhere Noica's books, the pre-'44. I've read

them just since 1987 '88, when I was assigned to

Suceava, in a village of district Suceava as professor of

physics. I have found them in History Museum of

Suceava, in Peter Comarnescu's library which wasdonated there in full, and had all works (before '44) of

Noica with the dedication of Noica for Peter

Comarnescu. There I finally met with "Mathesis or Simple

Joys", with "Open Concepts in the History of Philosophy,

from Descartes, Leibniz and Kant" and with "Sketch for

the History of How is it Possible Something New".

CA And with De caelo probably.

MC And with De caelo2 but these three works, especially,

were for me a very strong connection with what I knew

before about Constantion Noica. Namely, in "Mathesis..."

(His debut book) was entire his philosophical program,

along with his paedeic program, and... in The Open

Concepts... I found in that chapter about Kant, I think, until

now, the best Kantian exegesis which was written in

Romanian culture, and in " Sketch for the History of How

is it Possible Something New " I found a certain idea of

philosophical reading: the idea that the history of

philosophy must be traveled, not just reading it like a

novel, but with a leading idea, with a philosophical project.

CA Therefore, Mr. Marcel Chelba, this means that after

these readings, idea which Noica gave to you, namely,

2 And with "Two Introductions and a Pass towards Idealism"... and

"Philosophical Journal" less "Pages on the Romanian Soul", which

was put to Index, probably. This statement I made in the article about

the speech is made ("Last Idea of Constantin Noica and Endless Road

of Philosophy"), but I have not done it here, not to digress too much

from topic.


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infinity outside/infinity inside, took root somewhat

and began to bear fruit, and you went with this idea...

I understand...

MC It became a kind of grid of interpretation ...CA interpretation of philosophical thinking in general or ...

MC In general...

CA I understood.

N. B. Translation is in progress. Will follow

streams of philosophy (may 22, 2010). the modernity of kant. a broadcast on radio romania...

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