Liebert’s role in the creation of Philosophia journal and his theoretical contribution to cultural criticism

Although Arthur Liebert, during his relatively short stay in Belgrade, from 14 December 1933 to 11 July 1939, played an extremely significant role in our culture, especially in philosophy, until a little over three decades ago he was almost forgotten. Owing to Danilo Basta, and above all to Zdravko Kucinar, the activity of the founder of the international philosophical society and the journal Philosophia, and the person who contributed to Belgrade becoming a world philosophical centre for a while, was saved from oblivion. The reputation of that journal is evidenced not only by the fact that Husserl published the first part of his famous book “The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology” in it, but also that famous thinkers collaborated in it. After highlighting the ideological and programmatic orientation of the journal, the author discusses Liebert’s article “The problem of cultural criticism and cultural criticism of our time”. Although Liebert himself treated the article only as a preparatory action for shaping a comprehensive philosophical cultural critique, the analysis will show that it has a significant theoretical potential. Liebert believes that a critical attitude towards the existent is the original feature of human nature, owing to which human culture was developed. After shedding light on the biblical motive of disobedience of our first parents and interpreting various forms of subjective criticism, as well as pointing out that without freedom of criticism, science and philosophy would lack a moral and intellectual foundation, the author discusses the eight main properties of objective criticism. In the end, the author, relying on the patristic tradition, examines what remained outside Liebert’s theoretical perspective: could absolute obedience - i.e. fundamental renunciation of critical assessment of instruction given by a spiritual guide, owing to which the purification and transformation of a man’s fallen nature gradually occurs - be an alternative to the usual critical philosophical and scientific attitude. In a paradoxical way, it is shown that absolute self-criticism and complete submission to God’s will contribute more to defence of the world against evil than a critical attitude towards evil.