NATION AND NATIONAL LOYALTY IN THE WORKS BY A. MACEINA AND J. GIRNIUS Cover Image

TAUTOS IR TAUTINĖS IŠTIKIMYBĖS PROBLEMA A. MACEINOS IR J. GIRNIAUS VEIKALUOSE
NATION AND NATIONAL LOYALTY IN THE WORKS BY A. MACEINA AND J. GIRNIUS

Author(s): Jonas Balčius
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Vilniaus Universiteto Leidykla
Keywords: nation; national loyalty; culture; resistance; moral responsibility

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on discussing and evaluating works by Antanas Maceina (1908–1987) and Juozas Girnius (1915–1994) dwelling on questions of the cultural and political survival of the Lithuanian nation under harsh conditions of Soviet occupation and national emigration. It is demonstrated that works by the Lithuanian philosophers cited here remain among the most significant and theoretically mature contributions not only in the context of emigration, but also in terms of the whole history of Lithuanian philosophy. These works have not lost their conceptual relevance (both in theory and practice) in the modern times as well, because Lithuanian history may be more or less reasonably characterized by certain cyclical traces, and this assertion holds true not only for the 20th century. The increasingly aggressive policy of modern Russia (ruled by the Putin regime), particularly its strategy and tactics in dealing with the Baltic states, clearly indicate it being far too early to attribute these theoretical works by the above mentioned postwar Lithuanian philosophers living and working in the exile to the historical past of the Lithuanian people’s struggle for its national independence and freedom only. On the contrary, this indicates them being undoubtedly marked with the imprint of eternal modernity.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 73
  • Page Range: 179-196
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: Lithuanian