Abstract

Noica’s interest in Kant’s philosophy was an ongoing interest for more than fifty years, and it was grounded in his special concern with the ideational core of Critique of Pure Reason, i.e., the transcendental philosophy, the Kantian categories and their deduction. Starting from an accurate understanding of the distinction between „thing in itself” and object/phenomenon, and of the distinction between transcendent and transcendental in how we address the object, Noica had set forth an interpretation of the transcendental philosophy that still stands in nowadays: his view overcomes the mere naive-empiricist understanding of the Critique, for the „Kantian Noica” distinguishes quite clearly between different levels of reporting to reality. Consequently, Noica plainly discerns between the philosophical-speculative discourse and any meta-theory of science. At least in his youth, Noica was highly interested in determining the specific role and task of philosophy, in distinguishing between philosophy and other ways of reporting to the world, particularly the scientific way; and this interest is obviously related to the theoretical core that was the Romanian philosopher’s starting point: the novelty of the Kantian distinctions (thing in itself – phenomenon, and transcendent – transcendental). In this respect, up to a point, Noica himself was a Kantian. This is quite easily noticeable in his Ph.D. thesis. Gradulally, Noica show a transition from the philosophy of the a priori possibilities of reporting to experience to the ontological way of reporting to the world. Although at least in the Becoming... he could easly claim that he is a Hegelian philosopher, the Romanian author Constantin Noica should be regarded, partially, a genuine post-Kantian philosopher.