Philosophy in Our Time – the Philosophical Essay in the Interwar Period in Bulgaria  Cover Image
  • Price 4.90 €

Философията на нашето време – философската есеистика от междувоенния период в България
Philosophy in Our Time – the Philosophical Essay in the Interwar Period in Bulgaria

Author(s): Nina Ivanova Dimitrova
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Институт за българска философска култура

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the way in which philosophy experiences time, defines the spirit of time, and actively “imagines” it (to use B. Anderson’s term). The focus of attention is on the possibility of penetrating the character of the interwar period via the philosophical texts and related texts in the general field of the humanities, taken in their quality of a hermeneutics of the lifeworld. Attention is drawn to the possibilities of studying philosophical texts so as to capture the spirit of the interwar period. The article presents the genre of the philosophical essay, this non-systematic and non-strict (non-academic) form of philosophy; the essay is seen as the optimal genre for expressing the philosophical intuitions on man in his radically changing world. The discussion bears on the initiative of philosophical culture in Bulgaria during this period to take the “spirit of the times” as a central topic of thought. The article expresses the conviction that the existential type of philosophy, which places man and his experiences at the centre of interest, is the most adequate mode of philosophizing owing to its striving to be in step with the times and to express the spirit of the age, but also to provide formulations and prescriptions, i.e. to be not only a mirror of the age but a creative factor of it as well. A specific trait of this type of philosophy is its relatedness to literature, with only a relative boundary separating it from the latter. The essay and publicist writing were the genres that the moods called forth by that age predominantly “flowed into”. The Bulgarian essay flourished precisely in the interwar period. The second part of the article is devoted to the debate at that time as to the character and possibilities of the essay, and presents the chief participants in this discussion.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 149-164
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Bulgarian