Petar Bojanić o Miloradu Belančiću

Abstract

In the organization of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade and the Third Program of Radio Belgrade, on December 5, 2018, starting at 10 a.m., a philosophical meeting dedicated to the ideas and work of Milorad Belančić will be held at the premises of the Institute (Kraljice Natalije 45, fourth floor).

Milorad Belančic, one of the most prolific domestic philosophers, a French student and a longtime editor of the Third Program of Radio Belgrade, in his twenty books has left testimony of effective philosophical deconstruction, grappling with philosophical tradition, contemporary philosophical problems, as well as current political situations. During the seventies of the last century, Belančić is in France where he is visiting lectures of, above all, Vladimir Jankélévitch and Paul Ricœur. Upon returning to the country, initially, he undertook investigation of phenomenological motives on the Jankélévitch and Ricœur trails, publishing his most academic book The same and completely different, 1983, as well as the Interpretation Strategies, 1991. Shortly afterwards, along with the breakup of Yugoslavia, he dedicated himself to the poststructuralist deconstruction (Derrida’s provenance), and remains, perhaps, its the most consistent bearer in Serbian language. With the book Zero Point of Ideology (1989) he is clearly positioned on the public scene as an opponent of every authoritarian venture, and the Postmodernist anxiety (1994) is the peculiar announcement of a new philosophical perspective that he will hold, with the constant problematization of his own position, until the end in 2017. In a civil sense, therefore, Milorad Belančić never stood on the side of unfreedom, while in his philosophical work consistently advocated for multiperspectivity, for the kind of recognized differences without which freedom, simply, remains an empty term. In that sense Belančić has proved himself to be one of the most persistent and fierce polemicists in this region, especially in the books Polemologics (2008), The Philosopher must not go to Syracuse (2010) and We, We, We (2014).

The meeting is dedicated to the problematization of Belančić’s ideas and testing their capacity. In contrast to the commemorative tone that shifts the work into a better past, or leaves it to an uncertain future, Belančić directs his energy to the present, believing, along with one of his great philosophical opponents, Hegel, that philosophy is its own time apprehended in thoughts. It is precisely to such incessant (and unfinishable) work of deconstruction in present and on present Belančić dedicated almost all his philosophical energy: demolition of idols, decomposition of dangerous constructions and to the construction, of the same philosophical material, buildings that do not promise happiness but open spaces of freedom.

Planned participants: Petar Bojanić (Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade), Jovan Cekić (Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University), Novica Milić (Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University), Latinka Perović (Historian) Branko Romčević (Faculty of Security, University of Belgrade), Obrad Savić (Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University), Adriana Zaharijević (Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade), Aleksandar Zistakis (University of Athens, Greece)

Moderators: Ivan Milenković (Third Program of Radio Belgrade), Predrag Krstić (Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory)