The Pãltinis Diary : : A Paideic Model in Humanist Culture / / Gabriel Liiceanu.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Central European University Press eBook-Package 2013-1998
• VerfasserIn: Liiceanu, Gabriel,
• MitwirkendeR: Antohi, Sorin,
• Place / Publishing House: Budapest ;, New York : : Central European University Press, , [2022]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Central European Library of Ideas
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (260 p.)

The intellectual resistance to totalitarian regimes can take many forms. This remarkable volume portrays one such story of resistance in Romania during the reign of Ceauşescu: that of Constantin Noica, one of the country’s foremost intellectuals. Noica was an original thinker belonging to the remarkable intellectual generation of important figures such as Mircea Eliade, E. M. Cioran and Eugene Ionescu, but he chose to stay in Romania after the communist takeover when many others fled. Harassed and jailed for six years, Noica retreated to the mountains and gathered around him some brilliant young minds and future talent to challenge and nurture them in a time when communism denied them the materials of true intellectual importance. This group of students withdrew to Noica’s retreat for intensive philosophical sessions to debate the works of Kant, Plato, Heidegger and discuss humanistic values. The author of this volume Liiceanu, himself a brilliant philosopher, was Noica’s closest disciple and during every meeting he noted every conversation in a diary which came to be known as The Păltiniş Diary. These conversations were secretly published and quickly devoured by intellectuals in Romania who were prepared to sacrifice part of their food provisions to acquire the book. The Păltiniş Diary sold out within a matter of days and because of Secret Police censorship, was not published again in Romania until 1991 by which time Noica had died and the group had disbanded to help with the reconstruction of post-Ceauşescu Romania. The Păltiniş Diary is a wonderful homage to an intellectual master and to the power of intellect and freedom. The book will be of interest to philosophers, non-philosophers alike, and to anyone who seeks to grasp the true meaning of survival under totalitarian conditions.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Commuting to Castalia: Noica's 'School', Culture and Power in Communist Romania -- By Way of Preface -- Paltinis Diary -- Clarification -- 21st to 24th March 1977 -- 2nd to 12th October 1977 -- 12th to 19th November 1978 -- 11th to 28th December 1978 -- 17th to 25th February 1979 -- 27th September to 5th October 1979 -- 21st to 26th January 1980 -- 23rd to 25th March 1980 -- 19th to 22nd November 1980 -- October to December 1980 -- 19th to 25th January 1981 -- 7th to 11th May 1981 -- July 1981 -- Postscript -- Addendum to a biography -- Glossary