CONSTANTIN RĂDULESCU-MOTRU – A FOUNDER OF THE
ROMANIAN SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY
GABRIELA POHOAŢĂ
gabriela_pohoata@yahoo.com
Abstract: Constantin Rădulescu-Motru was the founder of the 20-th century
Romanian school of philosophy. His personality reflects a sui generis mixture of
pedagogics and philosophy, a teacher of philosophy as well as a founder of a philosophical
system. Therefore, his pedagogics was, rather a metaphysical one, a result of the energetic
personalised reconstruction of Man, in other words an anthropological pedagogics.
Keywords: energetic personalism, psychology, pedagogics, philosophical education,
Romanian culture.
The personality and philosophy of C. Rădulescu-Motru have already been
the subjects of a lot of papers and articles, some characterized by scientific rigour
and objectiveness; that is so because the philosopher’s and the psychologist’s
open perspectives with regard to the human being, to the national features, to the
social and political categories active in the modern Romania, and his entertaining
skills, all these taken altogether as well as separately have left significant traces
on our intellectual life.
This article intends to illustrate the pedagogical side of his personality, by
proving that he is one of the most important Romanian philosophers, a
founder of school and of philosophical journalism. Together with Nicolae
Iorga, professor Constantin Rădulescu-Motru is, nevertheless, the most
trustworthy, the most creative and original representative of the 1900’s
generation.
His personality impressed through the multisided Romanian culture of the
time he lived in, through the tribute paid to esthetics, pedagogics, psychology,
sociology, politics, all these coming from the energetic personalised
reconstruction of Man which he considers possible and which gathers all his
concern under the sign of a philosophical conception with strong capacities to
become operational to the national culture. He was among the first who was
tempted to create a „philosophy of the Romanian people”.
Rădulescu-Motru the philosopher was present in several places: at the
university, in the newspapers of the time, in public conferences, in the
parliament, on the radio. He enjoyed several social positions as a professor,
dean, editor-in-chief, journalist, playwright, politician, public office worker,
landowner.

Senior lecturer, Ph.D – „Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University, Bucharest.
He studied philosophy starting from the European doctrines, considering
that a Romanian philosophy could evolve only in terms of the European
thinking, though at the end of the 19-th century in Romania there was a shortage
of a well defined public space, of communication channels among philosophers,
to say nothing about the lack of a real dialogue among subjects, a fact that
Rădulescu–Motru had very well noticed. He understood the need for
communicating philosophy through various channels, starting from the real
philosophic production. He did not let philosophy go down to the common level,
he did not let it become vulgar, he intended to create an intellectual public,
recruited from all the categories of intellectual people, interested in the
philosophical thinking.
There is evidence about the condition of philosophy at the end of the
19-th century and the beginning of the 20-th. C.Rădulescu-Motru himself depicts the
position of the philosophy teacher on the second half of the 19-th century. The study
of philosophy „was more an appendage to history and philology, as philosophy
was awarded a menial rank; there was no favourable context to the philosophic
thinking, and the public opinion showed a certain inhibition towards the original
philosophic work. Actually, the audience did not need original works.(...). Some of
them would have been disreputed, mainly the teachers, had they been awarded
personal ideas. That would have meant that they did not know well the subjects
they were supposed to teach. Under the cultural climate of the last 30-50 years, there
were no favourable conditions to philosophic originality whatsoever”1.
The idea was also to be found in the „Foreword” to the Energetic Personalism,
in 1927, in which he noticed the lack of philosophic tradition, which prevented
the philosophic innovation.
To this respect, he mentioned Titu Maiorescu and C.Dumitrescu-Iaşi, his
masters, who had not written or published original philosophic works.2
One of the most important institutions created by this philosopher is The
Romanian Association of Philosophy. Founded as The Association of Philosophic
Studies, in 1910, it became The Romanian Association of Philosophy, in March 4,
1915; that body gathered all the major representatives of our philosophy in the
first half of the 20-th century, and it functioned until 1944.
At meetings they debated a lot about the condition of philosophy at
highschool level, and decided to organize a convention of the philosophy
teachers. In February 2 over 4 1934, the first Convention of the highschool
philosophy teachers, organized by the Group of the philosophy teachers, with
Rădulescu-Motru presiding, took place at the Dalles Foundation. Several
hundred teachers participated. On opening the Convention, C. Rădulescu-Motru,
stated that its aim was to bring reasons to initiate chairs of philosophy, by
Rădulescu-Motru, C., „Confessions, „in the volume issued by Valeriu and Sanda Râpeanu,
Minerva Publishing House,1990, p.64-70.
2 Rădulescu-Motru, C., „Energetic Personalism”, Albatros Publishing House, 2005, pp.V-LVI.
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assigning the convenient number of philosophy classes in schools: „ We do not
ask any favor, all we ask is a full understanding.”
A major component of the organizing activity of C. Rădulescu-Motru as a
school founder is made of his unforgettable papers presented in the Academy.
„The Educational Role of Philosophy” held in front of the audience in February 18,
1944, stated the rationalism and the belief in the educational value of philosophy,
in a moment when value had gone down and the subconscious behaviour had
gone up. „Among the roles of philosophy – said Motru - the most important one
is the educational one. From its origin, the philosophic thinking aimed at the
Man’s perfection, in terms of conduct and mentality. Primarily philosophy was and still is- wisdom; that is thinking and wise deed”. With that belief, and using
his vast teaching expertise, Motru pleaded to the efficient teaching of philosophy
to the highschool students. „The philosophy education classes – stated the
thinker- do not aim at teaching the students much philosophical knowledge,
their aim is to provide education, to help the students’ mind become more
mature and to develop moral conduct”.3
,,Naturally, wrote Gh. Vlăduţescu,4 Rădulescu-Motru dealt more specifically
with pedagogics, as a teacher, a memorable teacher, though not a spectacular
one. Nechifor Crainic used to say about him:” Motru’s words were not bright,
sometimes his sentences seemed to flow like a little spring among stones, but
beyond that one could feel a Man of culture and structure, a mentor to us all”:
the real master”, “a good, lenient connoisseur of the adolescent’s psychology”,
therefore “less tough and more sympathetic”, guiding the debates “with a
confident, non-sophisticated manner” during the seminars. „In graduation
exams, he affably evaluates candidates, asking questions not only related to
topics but also for checking brain power, listening to answers attentively, kindly
noticing mistakes, taming juvenile critics upsurge, and being astonishingly
ashamed by the respondents’ ignorance or weakness”.5
He did not possess „eloquence”, but his „lectures” „were very interesting
and full of cases and ideas” (I. Petrovici, University Memories). „He was
extremely lenient at exams. What he wanted to find out was the student’s
efficient work and dilligence” Eugeniu Speranţia, University Personalities).
„(....) His teaching reached our souls, thus becoming thinking subjects and
objects”(Ion Zamfirescu, People I Met).
Yet, more than that, as any master who is a teacher, too, C.Rădulescu-Motru
searched deeper into pedagogics and found out its aims and epistemology. As he
himself used to state, it awarded it „a lot of thinking”, „not to collect rewards,
3 Rădulescu-Motru, C., -„The Social Role of Philosophy (restored)”, „The Review of Philosophy”
2/1992, p.155-156.
4 Vlăduţescu, Gh., - “Nonconventional on the Romanian Philosophy”, Bucharest, Paideia
Publishing House, 2002, p.16-22.
5 Gheorghiade, C., - „Mr. C.Rădulescu-Motru, a Teacher and a Man of Science”, „Literary
Debates”, year VII, July-August, 1925.
but to recruit apostles able to spread a new faith to the people, and material and
moral benefits to come out from them later”6.
The financial crisis seriously affected not only the country but also school, and not
only from the material point of view, but also in terms of system. It is still a continuation
of the old condition, that is to provide general culture for only some years. „Far from
being luxury, school is a must to all of us....Our contemporary world, without giving up
its natural priviledges, steps forward to a new school”. Hence „each graduate....is a
source of national energy”, and „a people’s energy springs from the relation between
work and nature”.
His pedagogics comes out from an energetic and final metaphysics; Vasile Băncilă
found out two supporting theses, one that „it does not directly adapt to the cosmical
environment, but it reacts against it” and the other one „the idea of the aim” which”
involves the means, that is the idea of education to reach that aim” 7. „Trying to settle
the philosophy of creating personality is not the same thing with trying to clear
up the development of an educational process”. Starting from fundamentals in
the metaphysics of the energetic personalism, actually an antropology, the
antropological pedagogics of the philosopher finally reached the evidence of
principles and means belonging to both nature of philosophy, as well as to
political philosophy”.8
His pedagogics was, somehow, metaphysical, generated by an energetic
personalist reconstruction of Man, „the greatest Motru’s concern.”
Scrutinying the sources of Rădulescu-Motru’s thinking, one should firstly
remember the influence of Titu Maiorescu. Maiorescu contributed to Motru’s
orientation towards the new, experimental psychology. Not only the ideas of his
master, but also the direct, personal urge of the latter meant a lot to Motru’s
orientation towards a new psychology, as it comes out from the letters between
1889 and 1898. On the other hand, the debates in the „Junimea” as well as
Maiorescu’s philosophical conception contributed to Rădulescu-Motru’s
thinking, in his trial to find a way to relate science to metaphysics. In a more
concret way, his trial to surpass kantianism from the point of view of a realistic
epistemology and evolutionist ontology, the wish to reconciliate the science
objectivity with the truth relativity, in which one could identify the main guiding
lines of Motru’s thinking, had been generated by Maiorescu’s thinking and by
the debates in the „Junimea”, as the characterization of Titu Maiorescu’s thinking
made by Rădulescu-Motru, in 1920. The author of The Energetic Personalism,
showed the conflict between the „perspective of the objective truth”, a
perspective which generated, among others, the cultural critics of Maiorescu, and
C.Rădulescu-Motru, – „The Operational School and Democracy”, „The Review of Philosophy”,
no.3/1929.
7 Gh.Vlădescu -Racoasa, a pedagogue – “In Honour of Professor C.Rădulescu-Motru”, in “The
Review of Philosophy”, vol. XVII/1932.
8 Gh.Vlăduţescu – Nonconventional, quoted work, p.43.
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the “relativity of science” and “the truth in general”, as a “source of Maiorescu’s
thinking”.
„The Kantian relativism related to Herbert Spencer’s evolutionism meant a
more complete and real concern to Maiorescu, stated Motru.9
Last but not least, Motru was to reconsider, mainly in the first part of his activity,
Maiorescu’s theory of „groundless forms”, thus generating a new conception of
„Junimea”, in a larger concept of the philosophy of culture.10
The Kantian philosophy was a starting point for Motru, and, at the same time,
the field for a several decades concern. In philosophy, the influence of Wundt
involved the subject and the method of philosophy. With Wundt, philosophy
should be based on the results of specific sciences; between philosophy and science
there is no difference from the principles point of view, as philosophy surpasses the
specific sciences through confruntation and general results. Wundt’s trial to rebuild
metaphysics on inductive bases could influence Motru’s accomplishment,
sinergetically with Titu Maiorescu’s orientation. The psychologism of the German
thinker, his way to consider the logical, epistemological, cultural matters as
belonging to psychology, also influenced C.Rădulescu-Motru in a certain way.11
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru is also remarkable through his numberless values,
all used to the spiritual upgrading of the Romanian people. He was both an
outstanding philosopher and psychologist, who studied in Germany and France,
becoming well known there, a politician and a leader of some institutions; he was the
President of the Romanian Academy between 1938-1940, he founded the Association
of Philosophical Studies in 1910, which later became the Romanian Philosophy
Association, as mentioned above. Different from Titu Maiorescu, his master, he
understood that philosophy ought to be present in the public arena too, not only in
University, thus showing the Romanians’ competence to the philosophical thinking.
The philosopher had an intense activity as a lecturer in the public space, proved
by his lectures held between 1910-1912. At the Atheneum Hall, on the 9-th of May,
1910 on the lecture dedicated to the celebration organized by the Cultural Club
Association, C.Radulescu- Motru spoke about the so-called inferiority of women,
denounced by the feminist movement. Feminists mistook in upholding the idea about
the equal competition between man and woman. Women were not created to
accomplish the same social functions like men. That does not mean that the man has
superior attributes than the woman, as each sex has its own specific attributes.
Inferiority levels could be discussed only between unnecessary functions. The woman
is dominated by the maternal instinct and, from here, her intimate life is much closer
to the human species life and much more conservative. The man represents the
9 Simion Ghiţă – „Science and Knowledge in C.Rădulescu-Motru’s Conception”, in “Romanian
Philosophy and Sociology in the first Half of the 20-th Century”, Bucharest, Publishing House of the
Academy, 1969.
10 Petru Vaida, C.R.Motru, “The History of the Romanian Philosophy”, Vol. II, Bucharest,
publishing House of the Academy, 1982, p. 368.
11 History of the Romanian Philosophy, quoted work, p. 369.
elements of variability in the inner evolution of species. In school, there is no training
with a view to the woman’s inner particuliarities (C. Rădulescu-Motru, 1910).
In the second half of June 1912, C. Rădulescu-Motru delivered 14 lecturs on
psychology, applied to the pedagogical practice, for the kindergarten staff; there
participated 170 pedagogues who gathered at the Elena Doamna Asylum.
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru, the founder of the philosophical reviews in
Romania, followed the German and French models he had got familiar with
during his study times. He wrote:12 „At the age of 25-30, my works are essays, or
they are trials motivated by external situations (...). The age between 30-40 years
was the time for me to orientate in Romanian politics and culture.
Between 1900 and 1916 two series of the „New Romanian Review” were
issued, a magazine I lead and in which I publish a lot of articles with various
political, cultural topics, as well as literary matters. In 1904, when the „New
Romanian Review” was ceased, I wrote the „Romanian Culture and
Politicianism”; since I was 40 years old, my work in philosophy became more
specific, due to the „Studies of Philosophy”, a review still issued nowadays
under the title of the „Review of Philosophy”. In the first years of „ Studies of
Philosophy”, there were published „The Power of the Soul” (1908) and „Elements of
Metaphysics” (1912). After 50 years, I dare give my works a systemic character”13.
It is out of question not mentioning Rădulescu-Motru’s creative dimension
of his personality evident through the numerous publications that he initiated
and guided, in the fields of both philosophy and psychology. Also, this activity
did not involve only his own reviews, as the Romanian philosopher’s numerous
works were present in national and in foreign reviews as well.
He very much believed in the educational role of the Romanian philosophy and
he considered that through publications and the position of the philosophy and
pedagogy teachers trained in the western countries, the spirit of the European
philosophy would penetrate our country.
Though a contemporary with those that had highly represented the Romanian
university
forum
starting
with
Titu
Maiorescu,
his
master,
C. Rădulescu-Motru was, from 1897 till 1941 one of those teachers who left his
mark on the soul of several generations that attended his courses and seminars
either before or after the first world war. As Ion Zamfirescu, one of his students
showed, C. Rădulescu-Motru had “between the two world wars, an influence as
characteristic and telling as the one of the previous generation, felt at the
beginning of the century. No effects, no gorgeousness, impressions or momentary
judgements; no features to raise admiration and immediate adhesion; no rhetoric
or other sort of expression to charm our outward; there are other really speaking
elements. It namely is the thinking personality of the teacher: his calm grandeur, in
its timeless permanence, in its deep captivation. This thinking was shown to us in
C.Rădulescu-Motru, - Revised and Abridged Works, 1944, II, Bucharest, Floarea Darurilor
Publishing House, 1996, p.195.
13 C.Rădulescu-Motru, ibidem quoted work, p.196.
12
stages: from step to step, without spectacular leaps or discrepancies, like in a
natural development and organic integration. Briefly: not on the spot, but in time.
This was the rhythm in which we relied to C.Rădulescu-Motru, and we gathered
around him, long after the study years. In his position of President of the
Association of Philosophy, and of a leader of the review, he was a good, lenient
manager to our first journalistic or oral activities”14.
Immanuel Kant, the philosopher who influenced Rădulescu-Motru,
differenciates between the philosopher and the teacher of philosophy15, but the
Romanian thinker contradicts the Kantian remark, happily gathering the twofold faces of his personality. To this respect, Mircea Vulcănescu showed in one
moving articles of his, published in the „Cuvântul” newspaper (year VIII,
November 7, 1932, p. 2), when the master celebrated thirty five years of activity
at the University: „Professor Rădulescu –Motru means two things in the
Romanian cultural life: An intellectual attitude and a philosophical system”.
Nicolae Bagdasar made a real portrait of professor C.Rădulescu-Motru. Here
are just some aspects we considered essential to draw the psycho-moral traces of
that genuine master of philosophy, the one who transformed philosophy in more
than a university subject, a way to raise the Romanians’ consciousness, a kind
of paideia in Plato’s philosophical acceptance, a way to educate the Romanian
nature.”
,,His course was full of substance... due to his dilligence and hardwork in
preparing his courses, C. Rădulescu-Motru was one of the few professors who
could competently teach more philosophical subjects. Very well trained and
always in pace with the up –to- date research, C.Rădulescu-Motru was not at all
pedant, he did not boast on his knowledge, rendering the latest ideas in a natural
way, leaving himself aside, as if he wanted to say: ”It is not big deal to get it,
anybody may approach it”16. He was much too specialised, which made him
avoid to impress through his knowledge.....For any matter he used to give a
bibliography of the most important works, without boasting on it, as other
teachers did. He was affable and friendly with his students, giving them his time,
staying at their disposal with the needed information. In seminars he did not
interrupt the speakers, even if they were much far from the matter – which
usually happens- showing full understanding for their juvenile audacity, letting
them also say shocking things than intimidate and demotivate them. In the end,
he calmly and nicely showed how the matters had to be solved, by encouraging
and handling gently the situations. He delivered his courses and held his
seminars with extreme dilligence. As a deputy or a senator, he never put off his
14 Ion Zamfirescu, in C.Rădulescu-Motru – Confessions, Bucharest, Minerva Publishing
House, 1990, p.9.
15 Imm. Kant – „An Introduction to the Critics of the Pure Reason”, Bucharest,
Ştiinţifică
Publishing House, 1969, p.25.
16 N.Bagdasar, C.Rădulescu –Motru – Portaits, in the Annexes to the Pszchologz of the
Romanian People, Paideia Publishing House, Bucharest, 1999, p.142.
classes, although the sessions of the Deputies and Senate took place in the
afternoons when he happened to have classes. And when in force majeure he
could not come, he used to ask a university assistant to replace him or he
rescheduled his classes. In his life, professor’s duty played the first role; he
always was first a professor; all the other things came second. He showed the
same dilligence not only in courses and seminars, but also in reading and
evaluating the seminar works, half term exam papers, graduation theses. He read
and marked papers himself, not like other professors who let their assistants to
deal and evaluate them”17. We have also to mention that C.Rădulescu-Motru was
Mircea Eliade’s professor, too. In his memoirs, Mircea Eliade wrote about
C.Rădulescu-Motru’s personality18; he had been his professor at the Faculty of
Philology and Philosophy, and one of the members of the Commission with
which he passed his graduation thesis, together with P.P.Negulescu and D.Gusti,
in 1928. Mircea Eliade remebers him as follows:
,,I remember Rădulescu-Motru’s first lectures. He was about 60 years by
then, but he looked much older. His voice was low, he could hardly see, he could
hardly walk, leaning upon his cane, and he would not recognize the faces, or
remember the names. Several years later, after an operation, he was completely
revigorated. When I came back from India, in 1932, I went to see him, and he
looked ten years younger.”19
No doubt, his confessions are guiding points for the portrait of one of the
greatest masters of philosophy of the Romanian people. The role played by
C.Rădulescu-Motru in the Romanian culture for spreading the philosophical
knowledge and for developing the interest in philosophy was, nevertheless,
essential.
A very great and sound thinker, a prestigious authority in teaching, founder
of specialism and cultural reviews, a worthy supporter of all the philosophical
and spiritual initiatives, C.Rădulescu-Motru is the most distinguished figure of
the Romanian thinking. That is why V.Băncilă rightly stated 20 that Mr. Motru
was „a real pedagogue of the Romanian ethnic energy”, while his doctrine was
„a social pedagogy”21.
He did not remain unique only because he had bright disciples, as those
already mentioned, but he understood the educational role of philosophy and he
was concerned about its status in the education curricula, at both secondary and
Ibidem quoted work, p.143.
Mircea Eliade –„Memoirs”, in the collection of „Destiny”, 1966, p.113. In the „Les Promesses
de L’equinoxe (Gallimard), in 1990, in which Mircea Eliade renders other meetings with
C.Rădulescu-Motru; after coming back from India, he remembers the support of his teacher for
publishing some works in the “Review of Philosophy”.
19 Mircea Eliade, ibidem. quoted work, p. 115.
20 V.Băncilă – “C.Rădulescu-Motru’s Energetic Personalist Doctrine”, Bucharest, Romanian
Culture, 1927, p.117.
21 Gh. Vlădescu –Racoasa – „The Life, Personality and Works of C.Rădulescu-Motru,” in the
Review of Philosophy, no. XVII/1932, p. 26.
17
18
university levels. He was convinced that the study of philosophy was the most
accomplished form of education for his people, as there was no other superior
way to raise the Romanians’ consciousness. That is why, to him philosophy
meant more than a curriculum subject, and C.Rădulescu-Motru means to us,
Romanians, one of our greatest masters of pedagogy ever.