A Romanian View of Europe: George Uscatescu

Abstract

As George Uscatescu asserted in ‘Autopresentazione’, a self-presentation requested by the Italian journal Filosofia Oggi on his 70th birthday, his life was conducted in the name of unity between profession and calling.¹ Inspired by Max Weber’s view, expressed in his Politik als Beruf, professor and writer George Uscatescu understood this unity in a different way: as referring not to politics, but to philosophy, that is to the ‘practice of “logos” in the most profound possible sense’. The best expressions of his concern with the ‘vitality’ of logos, especially of the cultural logos, are his ten books and many papers, written in various languages, dedicated to the theme of Europe. Well-known as a European humanist, he never forgot his roots; he wrote a few books, many essays, and almost all of his poetry in Romanian. He pleaded and worked for the integration of his native country’s culture in Europe, with the condition that its own identity be preserved.