”Cogito, Ergo Sum”...?

Right after the 1989 coup, we finally started enjoying the writers we used to listen to on Radio Free Europe or read in clandestine Xerox copies, passed around in secrecy. And overnight, a new class emerged—philology and foreign languages—alongside the well-established ones in math, physics, and mechanics.

And, just as suddenly, teachers who had spent a lifetime preaching communist ideology in subjects like political education had the audacity to switch to philosophy. A bold move, no doubt, and one that reminds me of my own teacher—who was well past the age for such radical career shifts.

Out of an entire high school with twelve senior-year classes, only one other student—Retca Ionu?—and I chose to take philosophy as our oral exam for the baccalaureate.

Cartesian philosophy was always close to my heart—paradoxical, isn’t it? After all, Descartes wasn’t exactly concerned with the heart.

They say reason is what sets us apart from all other beings. But why is it always about separation? Isn’t what unites us far more important?

“The prayer of the heart,” “Bring your mind down into your heart”—though in Orthodox Christianity these practices are specific to Hesychasm and the Philokalia, the idea of uniting the mind and heart appears in many spiritual traditions, from Greek mysticism and Neoplatonic philosophy to Islamic mysticism.

May your heart be filled with love, wherever you are!