Resumen de Thinking with Mamardashvili: Human Responsibility, (Un)Freedom, (Trans)nationalism, and the Relevance of His Thought for the 21st Century
Merab Mamardashvili (1930-1990) was a Georgian-born, multilingual philosopher whose work spanned a wide variety of topics, including philosophy of consciousness, literature, ancient philosophy, and contemporary European thought. He was one of only a handful of Soviet-born practitioners of a European, Frenchinfluenced style of philosophical discourse that, in Mamardashvili’s case, bordered at times on a form of Marxist existentialism, given his early methodological foundation in Marxist analysis and his commitment to investigating the human experience. Although he is one of the most oft-cited contemporary philosophers in Russia today, until very recently, Mamardashvili’s name was mostly unknown outside the former Soviet Union. My goal in this paper is to consider how Mamardashvili’s philosophical thought can help us to grapple with, and to (re)consider, those key concepts that underlie some of the most critical flashpoints of the contemporary age: issues like human responsibility, citizenship, freedom, nationalism, and transnationalism. Upon first glance, these topics are abstract enough to have been addressed by many a philosopher, at many historical moments. And yet, what makes Mamardashvili’s position distinctive is the way that he occupies a space that is simultaneously East, West, and Other, thereby making his philosophical work perhaps especially suited to the contemporary moment, where most of the world’s most pressing issues are essentially transnational in character.
