Harmonizing the Man with the Existence in Nae Ionescu’s View

For Nae Ionescu, Romanian philosopher, logician and metaphysician, the problem of transcendence (the metaphysical issue) arises when man fails the connection with eternity and relapses into existence – in fact, he is heading for death. In his view, metaphysics is man’s preoccupation with harmonizing with the existence when he has failed salvation. The Romanian thinker states that for man there is only one way to access the fullness of being, when alive, after having lived all possible experience: giving to the community in which one lives, and through this, restoring the communion with God. From the moment he wanted to know, the man differentiated himself from Creation. Moreover, knowledge has made man alone in the universe, made him believe that he can establish a new order, of his own, different and opposite to that of God. Knowledge is man’s tendency to grasp existence in a logical concept or formula. Transcendence, however, cannot be seized normally through rational methods. It must be lived. Any system of metaphysics, says Nae Ionescu, is a lyrical offering, when man is pushed to the extreme limits of existence. The problem of metaphysics is an anthropological problem.