The Wisdom of Place: The Essence, Origins, and Modes Lithuanian Philosophical Philotopy of Arvydas Šliogeris

Abstract

The authors of the article present an analysis of Lithuanian philosophical philotopy of Arvydas Šliogeris, the most original and influential Lithuanian thinker, mostly focusing on the essence, origins, and modes of Šliogeris’s conception of “the love of place”. Philotopy, as conceived by Šliogeris, is interpreted not only as an expression of the so-called “Lithuanian thinking”, but also as a novel method of contemporary philosophy and a possible answer to present-day challenges, both existential and environmental. Šliogerian philotopy is presented mostly in the context of the three syndromes described by the philosopher in his most important work Niekis ir Esmas (Nihil and Isness), namely, the syndrome of Nirvana, the syndrome of Caligula, and the syndrome of Ithaca. The authors of the article reinterpret further these three syndromes by way of the phenomenology of place, especially a novel attempt at island phenomenology which, though made independently, has some similarities to Yi-Fu Tuan’s phenomenological analysis of the island in the context of his idea of topophilia and his project of human geography. The authors draw attention not only to the similarities and differences between Šliogeris’s conception of philotopy and Yi-Fu Tuan’s conception of topophilia, but also to some interesting conceptual affinities between the thought of Šliogeris and that of Edward S. Casey. The conclusion is made that the project of Lithuanian philosophical philotopy, as represented by the works of Šliogeris and his disciples, though conceived independently and within the traditional contexts of Classical philosophy, presents us with insights that have universal relevance and typologically have very much in common with the respective ideas of those contemporary philosophers who are working within the context of the philosophy of place as a distinct and vigorously developing discipline.