Summary
Constantin Noica: Stories of a Man
Romanian philosopher and quiet dissident Constantin Noica (1909 - 1987) in this work, originally subtitled "According to a book by Hegel" and written in 1955 and 1956, gives his own thorough and genuinely interested interpretation of the book Phenomenology of the Spirit of the famous German philosopher known for the weight and complexity of both thought and language. Starting from the conclusion that Hegel "as it is", that is, in a faithful translation from German, does not work and fails to shine in his native Romanian, Noica performs two methodologically different interpretations of that classic and thus creates two probably the most readable possible "retellings" of Phenomenology. Although we have every right to criticize Noica's views and political convictions (in the 1930s, like many other Romanian intellectuals, he sympathized with the legionary movement - the Iron Guard, and spent the 1940s as a philosophy officer in Berlin), his detailed, enthusiastic, friendly discussion of the subject and the reader and his broad erudition are indisputable, just like his sincere desire to bring to others everything that he considers most valuable in Hegel's thought - I agreed with his interpretations or not. Tales of Man is also the first translation of one of Noica's books into Croatian.
Biblos Newsletter
New titles, special copies and quiet recommendations from the antiquarian bookshop.