Vasile B¿ncil¿. An ethnic-spiritualist metaphysics banned by the totalitarian regime

This book is a rediscovery and examination of the thinking of Vasile Bancila, a philosopher forbidden by the totalitarian regime of Nicolae Ceau¿escu. The philosopher Lucian Blaga saw Bancila as a threat to the spirit of the highest Romanian culture. It is estimated that Bancila's work extends to 32 volumes, 17 of which have been published so far. With such a significant opus, Vasile Bancila is, indisputably, a key figure in contemporary Romanian culture, particularly in the sphere of philosophy.



The book has eleven chapters and is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the hermeneutics of the author's youthful works. His reflections on the purpose of philosophy for life are important, about the role of this discipline in the education of adolescents and students, the relationship between irony and education, his thoughts of one of the greatest Romanian poets, Mihai Eminescu, and the philosophy of Descartes and of Schopenhauer. In the second part, the book looks at Bancila's aim of structuring a possible system of philosophy; more precisely, an ethnic-spiritualist metaphysics which, when it was elaborated, contradicted the official ideology of the totalitarian regime. Finally, the book covers the philosopher's work, analysing step-by-step the relation between the part and the whole (pars pro toto), as well as between existence and metaphysics, and the philosopher's conclusions about Romanian existence.