LA QUESTION DU PROGRES HISTORIQUE DANS L’ŒUVRE DE LUCIAN BLAGA
THE ISSUE OF HISTORICAL PROGRESS IN LUCIAN BLAGA’S WORK

Summary/Abstract: According to Lucian Blaga, the issue whether there is or there is not historical progress can be solved only in terms of human relations with the metaphysical centre of existence, relations that provide for the man his state within the universe, setting up, at the same time, the rules of his individual and group existence, thus involving the mechanism of society. The latter is characteristic for the human environment, the natural manifestation of his full humanity, pulling him out from the mere horizontally living, giving ontological dimension of verticality. My paper reveals the fact that in Blaga's conception, human progress as a species throughout history is not possible, since progress requires either that man doesn’t have a final essence but perfects it only as time passes, or that he by knowing gradually the central mystery of existence, exceeds his own condition and becomes himself equal to his Creator. In fact, man, the result of complex ontological mutations is from the very beginning what he is, i.e. a being who lives within mystery and for revelation, and the transcendent censorship of the Great Anonymous prevents his usurpation by man. But when taking into account the different spheres of human activity, Blaga finds out that, for many of them, progress is, in one way or another, an undeniable fact, although it has time limits and, what is the most important, does not change man’s being and its position in the universe, failing to risk the principle of mystery conservation set by the Great Anonymous. So, Blaga's conception of progress is original, complex and subtle that refuses to treat progress as a common problem of human life, but solving it from the perspective of the human condition and the metaphysical sense of human existence.

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