Iulian Boldea (Editor) - Literature, Discourses and the Power of Multicultural Dialogue Arhipelag XXI Press, Tîrgu Mureș, 2017. eISBN: 978-606-8624-12-9 TITU MAIORESCU - THE FIRST TRANSLATOR OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER’S WORKS IN EUROPE Luiza Marinescu Assoc. Prof., PhD, ”Spiru Haret” University of Bucharest Abstract: Throughout his entire life and work, Titu Maiorescu (1840-1917) could be considered a great thinker, a tutor and a fighter for assertion of values in Romanian culture in one of the most emergent epochs in the history of Romanian literature: 1863-1917. Arthur Schopenhauer came into the world on February 22, 1788 in Danzig [Gdansk, Poland] in a Dutch family implied in international business trade both as a merchant and as a ship-owner. As a translator in Romanian of Arthur Schopenhauerřs work (1788-1866), Titu Maiorescu opened new knowledge tracks to the work of one of the most important thinkers of the time, whose philosophy, with an aesthetic perception of life, more musical and literary in the ability of expression and in the styles of understanding had been widely influential in the 20th century thinkers. Both scholars, Arthur Schopenhauer and Titu Maiorescu stated that the highest purpose of art is to communicate Platonic Ideas. The subject matter and stylistic arrangement of the Aphorisms were significant influences on the work of Titu Maiorescu whose later work exploresŕfollowing Schopenhauerŕ the relation of man to himself, the universe, the state, and women through the art of aphorism. Keywords: Titu Maiorescu, Zizin Cantacuzino, Arthur Schopenhauer, first European translation of Parerga und Paralipomena, aphorisms Among the famous personalities who used to attend the Junimea society (1863) and the review Convorbiri literare / Literary Discussions Ŕ translated title (1867) we first remind the five founders: Titu Maiorescu, Vasile Pogor, P. P. Carp, Th. Rosetti, Iacob Negruzzi, then Mihai Eminescu, Ion Creangă, I. L. Caragiale, Ioan Slavici, Vasile Alecsandri, Vasile Conta, A. D. Xenopol, N. Gane, a.s.o. 150 years ago, on March the 1st, 1867, the first issue of the journal Literary Discussions was published at Junimea Society Printing House in Iasi, the editor of this publication being Iacob Negruzzi (one of the three Costache Negruzzi's sons). Iacob Negruzzi was also a writer, a playwright, a literary critic, a jurist, a professor of commercial law, a member of the Danube Star Masonic Lodge in1866, the founding member of Romanian literary association Junimea and he was twice elected as the President of the Romanian Academy (25 May 1910 - 25 May 1913, 6 June 1923 - 12 June 1926) and the General Secretary of the prestigious academic forum (May 28, 1915 - June 6, 1925).Iacob Negruzzi was the editor-in-chief of Convorbiri literare (the Literary Discussions - translated title) for 28 years until 1895. With a certain intuition and refinement - characteristic of his education, his mission was to select for publishing the works of Romanian writers, who are considered to be the greatRomanian classics. Romanian Literary Association Junimea and its publication, Literary Discussions represented a unique spiritual phenomenon from the middle of the nineteenth century, meant to establish a new order of literary values in a post-revolutionary epoch shaded by blurring and 110 Section: Literature Iulian Boldea (Editor) - Literature, Discourses and the Power of Multicultural Dialogue Arhipelag XXI Press, Tîrgu Mureș, 2017. eISBN: 978-606-8624-12-9 confusion of all kinds. The moment of the founding, the ŖFolk Lecturesŗ, the review Literary Discussions, Junimea authorsř works were meant to select and promote prototypes of great Romanian classics writers, meaning "first-class" authors or wordsmith, men or women of letters, penmen, novelists, essayists, biographers, journalists, columnists, correspondents, models for the next Romanian literary generations. Titu Maiorescu and all the other writers from Junimea Society were called Ŗmind boyarsŗ (see Sorin Adam Matei Boierii minţii: Intelectualii români între grupurile de prestigiu şi piata liberă a ideilor - 2004) through the character of their studies in France and Germany and the manner in which these Romanian intellectuals are organized, as well as the social relationships and the ideologies they produced as an intellectual group interested in gaining access to power. Romanian intellectuals from Junimea society were also structured in a "prestigious group" that lead the reign of the traditional, aristocratic world and establish a social state they call "paramodernŗ. Titu Maiorescu was a professional philosopher. This fact was also proved through his PhD thesis in Latin (on Herbart's philosophy), through his presence in the Philosophical Society from Berlin where he was a very young and active member, through his famous philosophical conferences appreciated within the same society and his collaboration at Der Gedanke / The Thought Ŕ translated title, the newspaper of the Philosophical Society in question. He was born with this gift of knowledge and understanding the world and its problems as a philosopher. He demonstrated once again his accuracy in philosophy when he wrote a philosophical conference in German, (Einiges philosophische in germeinfasslicher Form/ Some Philosophical Systems Retold in a Coherent Manner - translated title). His rigorousness activity as a philosopher and as an illustrious professor of philosophy at Iaşi and Bucharest were also evidenced by the Logic treaty, used for decades by the students in high schools and faculties in Romania. Emblematic through the philosophical content of his popular lectures, and, most of all, through the constant presence of the substrate and the philosophical spirit - characterized by the breadth and elevation in the quasi-totality of his writings - Titu Maiorescu illustrated his originality of his activity as one of the great philosophers of Romania. Descending on a paternal line from Transylvanian scholar Petru Maior, Titu Maiorescudemonstrated his maturity as a good organizer, looking careful respect for legal forms. Endowed with a diplomatic prudence and refinement in inter-human relations, acting as a well-trained man, and with a sound scientific formation, Titu Maiorescu was only twenty-three years old when Junimea society considered him as its mentor, although he was not the age-old dean of the "Junimeařs foundersŗ and although he was not descendent from a family of the local boyar ship. The passion for German translation Titu Maiorescu had inherited from his father, Ioan Maiorescu, the professor: ŖBorn in Bucerdea, near Blaj in 1811, died in Bucureşti on September the 4th 1864. He studied in Blaj, Cluj, Pest and Vienna, following the courses of philology, history and theology at St. Barbara's Institute in the latter city. Professor in 1837 at a primary school in Cerneşti, founded by himself, he becomes a school inspector of Oltenia and then he goes to Transylvania during the Revolution of 1848, where he plays a significant political role in the national movement. He was then sent to Germany by the Provisional Government from Bucureşti to stand in favor of the Romanians, and to protest against Russia's politics. Meanwhile, Maiorescu collaborated at the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, publishing memoirs describing the situation of the Romanians in the East Europe and Transylvania. Later, Maiorescu entered as an official at the Ministry of Justice in Vienna, where he translated all the Austrian laws into Romanian. In 1857, he returned to the country to fully consecrate his professorship. 111 Section: Literature Iulian Boldea (Editor) - Literature, Discourses and the Power of Multicultural Dialogue Arhipelag XXI Press, Tîrgu Mureș, 2017. eISBN: 978-606-8624-12-9 Director of the Ministry of Religious Affairs under A. G. Golescu, he is appointed in November 1859, as a Manager in theMinistry of Education (old Romanian name Eforia Şcoalelor). I. Maiorescu wrote: ltinerar în Istria, un vocabular (Itinerary in Istria, a vocabulary- translated title),Die Rumanen des OesterreichischenMonarchy -reports, (The Romanians of the Austrian Monarchy- translated title), and many letters and memoirs published in Revista Noue (The New Magazine - translated title) by Ioan Ghika. "(Rosetti, 1897: 119) The approach of Titu Maiorescu to Arthur Schopenhauerřs philosophy determined the first European translation in Romanian language of The Aphorisms regarding the wisdom in life in 1872. Titu Maiorescu wrote two philosophical works in German and in Romanian (the first one is about Herbartřs themes and the second one, the Logic treaty is about Kant, Stuart Mill and Drobischř ideas). These works contain both the canvas of borrowed ideas and the fine arabesques of personal ideas (Petrovici, 1940: 330-332). But above all, it impresses the form in which these philosophical works were poured. This is effective and authentic Maiorescuřs unique pattern. To the treaty of Logic there is a wonderful organic form that transform the eclecticism ensemble of the ideas in a true unity, perfectly formed in all its joints. To his German writing about Herbart Philosophy it is impressive the concrete and literary form, which Herbart, the inspirer did not have at all. So, we could say that Maiorescu's writing, in its narrow edges, could have had for Herbartřs ideas the role to disseminate them. The same role was played later by Schopenhauer, with his artistic style for the dissemination of Kant's ideas. It is also important to mention those philosophical splinters, admirably written, in their lapidary concision, which are offered to us by Titu Maiorescuřs Aphorisms, annexed to the complete edition of his Critics. Titu Maiorescu appears to us as a true philosopher, both by the constant exigency of linking all his knowledge to each other and by looking at things from the height. He was endowed, as well, with the passion of ontological issues, tempered by a positivist education, which calls for the control of facts and contact with science. It was a speculative depression era in the University of Berlin during the time when he was a student there. Hegel had collapsed. Schopenhauer had not yet envisioned. Kant seemed obsolete.