New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences Volume 6, Issue 1 (2019) 286-295 www.prosoc.eu Selected Paper of 11th World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES-2019) 07-10 February 2019, Milano Novotel Milano Nord Ca’ Granda Convention Center, Italy Philosophy and education: The predicament of Ion Petrovici (1882–1972) work at Romania’s centennial (1918–2018) Virtop Sorin-Avram*, Department for Teachers’ Training, Constantin Brancusi University of Targu-Jiu, Republicii Nr. 1, Cod 210135, Loc. Targu-Jiu 210135, Romania Suggested Citation: Sorin-Avram, V. (2019). Philosophy and education: The predicament of Ion Petrovici (1882–1972) work at Romania’s centennial (1918–2018). New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 6(1), pp 286–295. Available from: www.prosoc.eu Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Jesus Garcia Laborda, University of Alcala, Spain. ©2019. All rights reserved. Abstract As one of the disciples of Titu Maiorescu (1840–1917) together with Constantin Radulescu–Motru (1868–1957) and Petre Paul Negulescu (1872–1951), they are regarded as the most prolific thinkers in Romanian modern thought and founders of the Romanian modern culture. History changes which they could not foresee have left the marks upon the perception, reception and interpretation of their work and Ion Petrovici is no exception to that. In order to understand and interpret his work reflected in his writings on philosophy, logic, philosophical monographs, travel diaries, speeches and notes, biographical method, along with text analysis, hermeneutical approach and criticism have been adopted. Bridging his prolific philosophical endowment with his epoch realities remains a wish and an ideal to which this paper aims with the respect that it would offer us a much clear image of the past and would increase our wisdom as how to act upon the future. Keywords: Education, philosophy, Romanian culture. * ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Virtop Sorin-Avram, Department for Teachers’ Training, Constantin Brancusi University of Targu-Jiu, Republicii Nr. 1, Cod 210135, Loc. Targu-Jiu 210135, Romania. E-mail address: [email protected] / Tel.: + 00-4-025-322-3188 Sorin-Avram, V. (2019). Philosophy and education: The predicament of Ion Petrovici (1882–1972) work at Romania’s centennial (1918–2018). New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 6(1), pp 286-295. Available from: www.prosoc.eu 1. The context and the approach to its diversity The merging of Romanian modern culture is due not only to historical, geo-political and strategic factor but also to a complex of circumstances that involved a certain type of personality pertaining the personalities involved in the long-time process. In this panorama of founders, the figure of Titu Maiorescu raises above both as an individual personality that left his mark upon a variety of fundamental aspects of the Romanian culture with all the components it implies and on the other hand, through the rhetoric that he produced in his disciples of one kind or another. Table 1 presents the sequences of the most important events since 18th and during the 19th century, while Table 2 Table 1. Historical events during 18th and 19th century in Romanian history 1 2 3 4 5 6 Time line & 1711–1716 1821 1848/9 191859 1877/1881 and 1821 Historical/Cultural Fanariote The revolt of The The Union Of The Independence War events period Tudor revolution Moldavia and Vladimirescu of 1848/9 Walachia presents the sequence of events during the 20th century that represent the background in which the personalities referred to in the paper have lived and acted. Table 2. Historical events during the 20th century and up to 2018 in Romanian history 7 8 9 10 11 12 1914–1918 1918 1939–1945 1947–1989 1989 2018 First The Great Second World The Communist The fall of The Centenary of Great World Union War period Communism Union of Romania War From 1st December 1918 Meanwhile, Table 3 presents the lifespan on these personalities commencing with Gheorghe Lazar considered as the founder of education in Romanian language as a reference point in the history of Romanian education along with Ioan Maiorescu (father of Titu Maiorescu) and also relevant Spiru Haret as the representative of one of the most consistent educational reforms in Romania before First World War. Titu Maiorescu is followed than by his disciples Constantin Radulescu–Motru (1868–1957), Petre Paul Negulescu (1872–1951) and Ion Petrovici (1882–1972) as the most representative. Table 3. Life span of the founders of Romanian modern culture Personality 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1. Ion 1882 * * * * * * 1972 Petrovici 2. Simion 1868 * * * * * * 1962 Mehedinti 3. Constantin 1868 * * * * * 1957 Radulescu -Motru 4. Petre Paul 1872 * * * 1951 Negulescu 5. Spiru 1851 * * * 1912 Haret 287 Sorin-Avram, V. (2019). Philosophy and education: The predicament of Ion Petrovici (1882–1972) work at Romania’s centennial (1918–2018). New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 6(1), pp 286-295. Available from: www.prosoc.eu 6. Titu 1840 * * * * 1917 Maiorescu 7. Ioan 1811 * * * 1866 Maiorescu 8. Gheorghe 1779 * 1823 Lazar Not only that they been active in the field of teaching and authorship in philosophy, psychology and culture but they also held ministerial chairs in various governments and occupied the position of what is called today Ministry of Education. Their work and example radiated in many directions and are responsible for setting a firm ground not only for the educational system but also for various schools and forms of thought in philosophy, psychology, literature and various other directions of culture. Their work and the impact of it is compatible to any representatives of founders in other European and worldwide cultures. These paradigms have not been yet sufficiently emphasised and it is time after the efforts of editing and publishing their works for the Romanian people to be made also available worldwide. To these personalities, the existential dimension of the epoch sometime exceeded the relation between their work and human personality. In many situations, they were under the tribulations of the epoch trying to stay above it to control and to direct it. This was a complex predicament. One wonders whether there is any school that could prepare one for the challenges an epoch may set before man. The situation of Ion Petrovici matches very well this type of circumstances. Endowed with excellent qualities and talents fitted for the field of philosophy, he engaged in a large diversity of activities and functions, a situation which has also attracted the astonishment of many and may be at the cost of the less writing in the philosophical filed, which many would have expected and an issue that many reproached to him. His enrolment in the educational, social and political areas has left a dramatic mark upon his destiny. These details are only now emerging as archives have been opened and it still a long work of research before the implications of the intricacies of destiny may lead to a reconciliation between ideas, ideals and real life that marked his destiny and the history of Romania. 2. The emergence of a thinker and his work Despite the criticism which surrounds the classical and typical biographical method, there are a few reasons why for the economy of this paper, we need to approach the biographical aspects of this thinker. One of the main reasons is of course to trace the paths of his professional development necessary to understand his professional work and the relations of the work to the universe of philosophy, and the second reason is to make it known outside the Romanian language and the culture of Romania in order to integrate it in the universal flow of thought and culture. As Ion Petrovici recounts: ‘I was born in Tecuci—the smallest of the smallest of the constellation of four county capitals(the others being Galati, Birlad and Focsani) (at present the town of Tecuci in the county of Galati, Romania), which together with the territory administered by each of them constituted the lower Moldavia region’ (Petrovici, 1966a, p. 7) into what could be called a middle class family of the 19th century, his mother Ortansa, a fellow of Notre-Dame of Jassy (Iasi), a nuns pensionate and a speaker of French, while Dimitrie, his father, a magistrate turning late on to advocacy, ‘fulfilling his duties conscientious, otherwise an absentminded, temperamental jolly’ (Petrovici, 1966a, p. 15). ‘My mother being my first teacher, a shorter time in the field of instruction but a longer one in that of education’ recollects Petrovici (1966a, p. 14). His formal education takes him to Colegiul Sf. Sava (Saint Sava College) from Bucharest and then to the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters and Philosophy where among his teachers are Titu Maiorescu and Nicolae Iorga to name only a few. It is here where he comes under the spell of Titu Maiorescu an encounter that would mark not only his career but his existent we may say. His literary talents as a playwright are demonstrated by having his play performed on the stage of the National Theatre in Bucharest (A Kiss, March 21, 1900) with kindly 288 Sorin-Avram, V. (2019). Philosophy and education: The predicament of Ion Petrovici (1882–1972) work at Romania’s centennial (1918–2018). New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 6(1), pp 286-295. Available from: www.prosoc.eu encouragements form the classical writer of Romanian Literature Ion Luca Caragiale. He graduates from Philosophy with a dissertation entitled ‘A philosophical question’ (O problema de filosofie, 1904) and soon to be followed by the PhD dissertation ‘The Psycho-physical parallelism’ (1905).