THE CENTER FOR PHILOSOPHY AND ART: AN INVITATION FOR EVERYONE AND NOONE
The Center for Philosophy and Art, together with the blog virtualsophists.org and the SOPHIA magazine are attempting, as modest as it may be, to show the readiness of people committing to self-teaching or auto didacticism of human science and also to increase youth’s abilities to write and debate for these fields of study. As we mentioned, we believe that even today, though bombarded by the virtual and from a technological “boom”, we can still find stimuli so we can write.
Illustration: Argjira Kukaj
Attempts to define Philosophy, besides being failed are also very anti-philosophical. Philosophy can be defined the same way we can define life. So any such attempt would also be dangerous because it’s very inhumane when life gets into a cold logical system, calculating it as if it were a mathematical task.
Regardless, we can talk about principles and ways on how to live life, how to approach life in the short time of existence. For us as founders of the Center it’s very difficult to tell you of who we really are or what we represent, precisely because of the reasons we mentioned. This duty, as hard and impossible it may be, within the self is filled with explosive charges of a war which is unstoppable towards invading new heights, towards knowing the self and building ourselves by our self. We’re starting deconstructing the Center for Philosophy and Art with a motif or a very shocking prediction for the time it was made, but still very actual today:
“I know my fate. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous — a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision that was conjured up against everything that had been believed, demanded, hallowed so far. I am no man; I am dynamite” –Friedrich Nietzsche
This prediction by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is the present, the past but also our future as a global and Kosovar society. The crisis Nietzsche was referring to is the crisis of the lack of identity, whether it be on a collective or individual level. This crisis is exactly the main reason for the start of World Wars but also of a chaotic state that would ensue after the war and that continues to this day and age. To be clearer, this moral crisis, is the destruction of the mentality that Moral or Good or Good and Evil, are forged by ideals such as: Religion, Nation, Ethnicity, Science or other ideologies. These tutelae and universal shelters in many cases have offered ensured safety to the individual and society by making the confrontation of existence easier but also insufficient and unproductive. With the destruction of these Universal ideals, the human will end up in a chaos of convictions, ideas and beliefs and will be much more breakable and closer to self-destruction. This was anticipated by Nietzsche.
Kosovar society is a society without tradition in culture, thought or science. As such, it’s never formed a clear-cut thought on itself. Time after time throughout history, when we as a society have been endangered even with physical extinguishment, identities such as nationalism, religion, or ideologies such as socialism-communism have been internalized by us throughout totalitarian regimes.
Today in the year 2019 when science and technology are at their peak, the young Kosovar has a difficulty of thinking about God’s existence. Today when we have 20 years from war, the young Kosovar has a difficulty to be nationalist, today when socio-economic conditions are created, the young Kosovar has trouble being at peace in the big patriarchal-traditional family… Today, the young Kosovar has a need that comes from within, by the depths of his being, to realize his life and to be built despite traditional values. For the young Kosovar today the conditions are set for him to be independent and to start the magical journey towards personal freedom. For the young Kosovar the time for rebelling against traditional norms and social taboos has come.
To build the new human we must destroy the old human, we must destroy him by doubting all traditional and predetermined norms. But, the crisis Nietzsche talked of starts precisely in these difficult attempts to create identities devoid of tradition and independent of any predetermined moral value. This crisis’s ending depends on the way it’s treated. Will we choose self-destruction or self-invention, that’s up to us?
Not everyone is aware of this state and not everyone has the bravery to express themselves. This state is experienced and felt more than it’s thought of and reasoned. By not being clear on mind and reason, we also act mindlessly and without reason. We’ve faced such psychological states and continue facing them as founders of the Center. In a situation like that, we consider that there is nothing more important than the fight for self-invention, so we’ve chosen to communicate, talk and think publicly… We believe that this approach is the right one to face the chaos we are in right now. This approach can be found more than anywhere in Philosophy, Literature, Art or through any other creative means. Human must speak with the language of the aesthetic, with language of thought or art. The Center for Philosophy and Art is an invitation for thought, reflection, communication, creation and honesty.
The Center for Philosophy and Art is furthermore an escape from public gossip toward a deepened state of thought. Names that have died long ago are discussed there, movies from different directors and different genres are screened, documentaries for philosophical texts are interpreted freely, lectures are held for subjects that create the new Albanian thinker, and there’s also extensive debates for the abovementioned subjects. Also, you can discuss for one of the above categories or read a book from the mini-library that is within the Center.
Shortly said: The Center for Philosophy and Art, is an attempt to promote critical thinking in every individual and also aestheticize the daily lives of people who have an interest in the mentioned fields.
Up to today, we’ve discussed the work of people who’ve left a mark, such as: Schopenhauer, Camus, Hesse, Nietzsche, Sartre, Kafka, Dostoyevsky, Fromm or Hemingway.
We’ve also had film screening of the biggest directors in world cinematography: The Doors (Oliver Stone, 1991), Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979), Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987), The Dreamers (Bernardo Betolucci, 2003), Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2014), Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011), Belle de Jour (Luis Bunuel, 1967), Through a glass darkly (Bergman, 1961), The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky, 1986), etj.
Meanwhile, through documentaries we’ve been introduced, reminisced and debated of Emile Cioran, Karl Marx, Frierich Nietzche, Sigmund Freud, and also the two legendary rock groups: The Beatles and Pink Floyd. In regard to the activities in the Center for Philosophy and Art, we’re very interested to contribute with writing to human fields that are part of our daily lives.
So, for three years now, in a continuous way we publish writings and translations of different kinds in the online blog: virtualsophists.org. Also, by being aware of the historical importance of the published text, we publish the philosophical-literary magazine SOPHIA- a magazine this which is the first of the existential philosophy currents in Albanian spaces.
The Center for Philosophy and Art, together with the blog virtualsophists.org and the SOPHIA magazine are attempting, as modest as it may be, to show the readiness of people committing to self-teaching or auto didacticism of human science and also to increase youth’s abilities to write and debate for these fields of study. As we mentioned, we believe that even today, though bombarded by the virtual and from a technological “boom”, we can still find stimuli so we can write. So, we encourage you to send us your writings for publishing; also, to come and to take part in our activities at the Center for Philosophy and Art. We’re very interested in cooperating with young, talented people who are interested in philosophy, literature and art and above all to freely communicate without barriers. So, we welcome your contact!
Philosophy, as I have understood so far is a voluntary living in regions of ice and high mountains—the seeking out of everything strange and questionable in existence, everything which hitherto morality has forbidden.
“Philosophy, as I have understood it so far is a voluntary living in regions of ice and high mountains- the seeking out of everything strange and questionable in existence, everything which hitherto morality has forbidden. Ice is near, loneliness is terrible- but how calmly everything stands in light! How freely you can breathe! How much you can feel a lie in yourself.” Friedrich Nietzsche.
About the author: “Center for Philosophy and Art”, is a cultural center with a headquarters in the city of Prishtina. The Center was founded on 14th of November, 2018 and organized discussions on different literary and philosophical works, screens films and documentaries and organizes public lectures, debated and talks in the field of Philosophy, Literature and social sciences.
