Preview:
Almost 70 years ago Czesław Miłosz wrote that what distinguishes Eastern European(s) is a specific, essential “lack of form – external and internal.” All their positive characteristics and virtues come from their fundamental vice which is a permanent immaturity. Eastern European(s) are guided by “a sudden inflow or outflow of internal chaos.” This brilliant observation was articulated in a very specific historical moment, for very specific cultural purposes, and with a very clear aim in mind. The historical-cultural reasons for Miłosz’s sober cultural-psychological diagnosis are all-too clear. Eastern Europe was (and still is largely), a cultural space saturated by history, and wrapped into sedimented layers of shared experiences, of conscious and unconscious, often conflicting, memories, of different cultural identities and models. They all indicate our common heritage – with both its cultural richness and its tragic fate(s). The question is to what extent Miłosz’s words are still expressive of who we – Eastern Europeans – are today. Can we still recognize ourselves in them? Are our identities “determined” by a fundamental lack of form, external as well as internal? Whatever would be the answer to such questions – does it really matter to us?
How to cite:
Bursztyka, Przemysław. “Eastern Europe: In Search of Form” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 9, no. 2 (2025): 1-12. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2025.0011.
Author:
Przemysław Bursztyka
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Warsaw
Krakowskie Przedmieście 3, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4978-198X
pbursztyka@uw.edu.pl
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