Return of the Same with a Difference. A Brief History of Mediocrity from Antiquity to Modernity
Revenirea „Aceluiaşi” cu o diferenţă. O scurtă istorie a mediocrităţii de la Antichitate la Modernitate

Summary/Abstract: The article proposes a brief history of mediocrity, whose evolutionary stages are perceived to run parallel to the human condition from antiquity to modernity: from the normative view on evil to the culture of rights and freedoms, in which the force of rationality is doubled by that of passion. The essay attempts to identify the main ways of being of the mediocre individual, in line with collective mediocrity. Concentrating especially on the contemporary, the article shows how compromise becomes the backdrop for contemporary mediocrity and focusing on a literary example, it analyses the axiological crisis in Robert Musil’s The Man without Qualities, in which the amoral hero mixes good and evil indiscriminately.

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