Classical and Non-classical Ideals of Rationality

Legendary Georgian philosopher Merab Mamardashvili (1930-1990) was once ironically referred to by the Cheka as the freest man in the country". But Mamardashvili was no dissident, believing that the authorities, having "faced the truth about what I really am", had no choice but to curtail his freedom.

The main theme of his research was the relation between language and consciousness. The latter, according to Mamardashvili, is not a natural human capability, it not only grows up naturally from the environment, but it appears and reports on itself in the metaphysical space of language and human co-operation. He considers consciousness to be an act of human existence; he said 'the act of thinking is correlated with Being as a transcendental level of human existence.