Filosofia ca metafizică descriptivă
Philosophy as descriptive metaphysics

Summary/Abstract: In this study we use the concepts of ethnophilosophy and descriptive metaphysics to theoretically locate Mircea Vulcănescu’s kind of philosophical enterprise in his seminal work The Romanian Dimension of Existence. We first offer a historical explanation of the emergence of concerns with national-ethnic philosophy in the 18th and 20th centuries, and we discuss several concepts of national-ethnic philosophy, including that of ethnophilosophy. We then argue that Vulcănescu had an ethnophilosophical project and that he understood ethnophilosophy as a form of descriptive metaphysics. Borrowing Susan Haack’s terminology, we show that Vulcănescu’s ethnophilosophy-as-descriptive-metaphysics is possible under the assumption of a weak local connection between language and conceptual scheme. Finally, we express doubts concerning the possibility of descriptive metaphysics of successfully accomplishing the ethnophilosophical project.

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