Philosophers in the Public Sphere of the Cities - The Birth of the National Philosophies from the Spirit of the Editorial Offices and Saloons in the 1 Cover Image

Philosophers in the Public Sphere of the Cities - The Birth of the National Philosophies from the Spirit of the Editorial Offices and Saloons in the 1
Philosophers in the Public Sphere of the Cities - The Birth of the National Philosophies from the Spirit of the Editorial Offices and Saloons in the 1

Author(s): Béla Mester
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Vilnius Gediminas Technical University
Keywords: Buda and Pest; city as an intellectual space; early 19th century Hungary; national culture; national philosophy; press; public sphere

Summary/Abstract: The aim of our paper is to offer an analysis of the phenomenon of the national philosophy of the 19th century. We will analyse this concept as a consequence of the emergence of the public sphere of the city in the function of the cultural capital of a national culture and the centre of the press. Our instance is the development of the philosophical public sphere of the double cities on the opposite banks of the Danube, Buda and Pest (today Budapest). This public sphere was organised in native language by the newly established organisations of the literature, humanities and sciences, such as different societies of writers, with a distinguished role of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS, since 1825). By our hypothesis, it is not an accident phenomenon that the topic of the national philosophy has emerged within the framework of this new public sphere. Expressed more clearly, the concept of the national philosophy depends on a special grade of the development of the public sphere of the centre of the national press – at least in the Hungarian case.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 7-20
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English