ACADEMY OF ROMANIAN SCIENTISTS

Annals of the Academy of Romanian Scientists

Series on Philosophy, Psychology and Theology

ISSN 2067 – 5690

Volume

13

, Number

1–2

/

2025

56

THE CURRENT SIGNIFICANCE OF BLAGA’S CONCEPTION

OF METAPHORICAL KNOWLEDGE

Ioan N. ROȘCA



Abstract

.

The

author

exposes

and

explains

the

distinctions

made

by

Blaga

between

plasticizing

metaphors

and

revealing

metaphors,

between

significant

myths

and

trans-

significant myths, as well as between these and the categorical ideas, which are involved in

myths

and

metaphors.

The

author

also

presents

the

philosopher's

conception

of

the

co-

presence of the metaphorical character and stylistic aspects in any form of culture, which

also implies the co-presence of all cognitive sources that contribute to the generation of

metaphors and their stylistic modeling/organization. Finally, the author appreciates Blaga's

conception of the metaphorical character of culture as significant and current through the

following: a) explaining the unitary character of culture by the fact that in its various forms

the same elements of human subjectivity are present: metaphorical imagination, en-static

intellect, ec-static intellect, the unconscious categories of the stylistic matrix; b) explaining

the

autonomy

of

cultural

forms

by

the

fact

that

each

form

engages

the

metaphorical

imagination and the other faculties of human subjectivity in a certain proportion, different

from

one

form

to

another;

c)

supporting

the

communicability

of

great

cultures

through

some common or related stylistic factors from one stylistic matrix to another; d) admitting

the national character of culture through the stylistic factors specific to each culture.

Keywords:

plasticizing

metaphors,

revelatory

metaphors,

significant

myths,

trans-

significant myths, abyssal categories, categories of receptive knowledge.

DOI

10.56082/annalsarsciphil.2025.1.56

In the present study, I analyze Lucian Blaga's conception of plasticizing

metaphors and revelatory metaphors and their presence in myths and in all other

forms of human creation, including metaphysics and science. Finally, I highlight

some current meanings of Blaga's conception of metaphorical knowledge and its

connection with paradisiacal knowledge (governed by the en-static intellect and

Kantian a priori categories), with Luciferic knowledge (centered on the ec-static

intellect),

and

also

with

the

stylistic

matrix

(made

up

of

noological,

abyssal

categories).

1.

Plasticizing metaphors and revelatory metaphors – their specificity and

sources

Plasticizing metaphors

are called so because they plasticize a fact through

another fact (the expression of one fact through the expression of another fact).

Among the examples given by Blaga, we note an example from one of his poems:



Prof. univ. dr., honorary member of the Academy of Romanian Scientists.

The Current Significance of Blaga’s Conception of Metaphorical Knowledge

57

“on the streets, thin and tall/ the rain walks on the cataligi”; and another from a

popular riddle about

a spider:

“in

a peak of straw/ the monastery of the king”.

They

do

not

bring

an

increase

in

knowledge

of

the

plasticized

fact,

they

are

inherent to the human spirit and arise from the disagreement between the abstract

and the concrete, that is, between the descriptive-abstract expression of a fact and

the concreteness of that fact, which is not

exhausted

by

abstraction,

a

disagreement

that

requires

completion

through

a

suggestive comparison with another fact.

According

to

Blaga,

man

uses

this

type

of

metaphor

when

he

“lives

without

mystery, without its consciousness, in an undisturbed state of paradisiacal-animal

equilibrium”

1

. In other words, he analogizes plasticizing metaphorical knowledge

with

enstatic,

ordinary,

empirical

or

inductive

intellectual

knowledge,

in

which

the

intellect

does

not

leave

its

usual,

empirical-inductive

patterns,

governed

by

Kantian

a

priori

forms.

Of

course,

the

difference

between

the

two

types

of

knowledge

–

enstatic

intellectual

and

plasticizing

metaphorical

is

given

by

the

faculties through which it is exercised: the enstatic intellect and, respectively, the

plasticizing imagination.

In

our

turn,

we

can

analogize

plasticizing

metaphorism

with

the

intellectual definition of notions not by proximate genus and specific difference,

but

by

enumeration,

through

which

we

complete

a

first

definition

of

an

object

through new features, which do not deepen the initial definition because all the

new attributes are located at the level of empirical knowledge or are inductively

dependent

on

the

empirical

stage.

For

example,

to

the

definition

of

man

as

a

rational animal, we can add bipedal, bimanous, featherless animal, etc., without

advancing anything in the mystery of the human being. And in this case, analogy

does not constitute an identification of the two modes of knowledge specified by

Blaga,

because

the

definition

by

enumeration

appeals

to

the

intellect

and

to

empirical

aspects

of

the

object

to

be

defined,

while

plasticizing

metaphorism

proceeds imaginatively “by approaching one fact to another, more or less similar,

both

facts

being

in

the

domain

of

the

given,

imagined,

experienced

or

thought

world”

2

. In one of Blaga’s examples, the swallows sitting on the telegraph wires

are called “some notes on a musical staff”.

Revelatory

metaphors

are

called

so

because

they

“reveal

something

hidden”

3

of a fact, that is, they reveal a mystery to it. Blaga finds several revealed

mysteries in the popular ballad

Miorița

, including the fact that death is called “the

bride of the world”, and death “a wedding”, which gives the fact “death” another

1

L. Blaga,

Geneza metaforei și sensul culturii

, în L. Blaga,

Trilogia culturii

, E.L.U., București,

1969, p. 280.

2

Ibidem

, p. 276.

3

Ibidem

, p. 279.

58

Ioan N.

Roșca

meaning, or the comparison of the elements of nature with the participants in a

wedding,

in

a

church,

through

which

the

whole

of

nature

becomes

a

kind

of

church. Among the illustrations with Blaga’s verses, we remember two revealed

mysteries, one of snowfall: “The ashes of the angels burned in the heavens/ fall

flaming on our shoulders, on the houses” and another of a sunset: “The sun, the

tear of God,/ falls in the seas of sleep”. This type of metaphors does not plasticize

some

facts,

but

“has

a

revelatory

character

,

because

they

cancel

the

usual

meaning of the facts, substituting a new vision for them”

4

. At the same time, they

no

longer

have

as

their

source

a

disagreement

inherent

in

the

human

spirit

(between abstract and concrete), but rather they spring from the specific way of

being of man

as an existence in mystery and for revelation

.

Therefore,

Blaga

believes

that

more

appropriate

than

the

Aristotelian

definition of man as a political animal (

zoon politikon

) is the definition given by

him,

according

to

which

"man

is

the

metaphorizing

animal",

because:

"The

emphasis, which we wish to place on the epithet "metaphorizing", is, however,

almost destined to suppress animality."

5

As for the source of revelatory metaphors, it is found, as Blaga states, in

the existential way of man to live in the horizon of mystery and revelation.

It

is

worth

noting

that,

by

their

very

location

in

man's

existence

in

the

horizon of mystery, revelatory metaphors are also

inherent

in

the human spirit,

springing from the permanent tendency of the spirit to discover something new

not only to satisfy biological needs, but also to fulfill spiritual requirements, the

absolute

values

of

truth,

good,

beauty

and

sacredness,

which

are

beyond

any

utility.

At

the

same

time,

I

believe

that

Blaga's

thesis,

according

to

which

revelatory metaphors suspend the usual acceptances of facts in order to substitute

other,

deeper

meanings,

is

consistent

with

the

Husserlian

phenomenological

method,

with

its

two

stages:

1)

phenomenological

reduction

,

of

suspending

or

bracketing empirical or other knowledge, and 2)

eidetic reflection

, of accessing

the eidos or essence objects to know.

Given that the two types of metaphors have always been characteristic of

human consciousness to concretize its abstractions and, respectively, to go beyond

the

already

given

knowledge

about

facts,

towards

their

mysterious

hiddenness,

Blaga rejects excessive metaphorism, present especially in some poetic creations,

in

which

metaphors

do

not

correspond

to

either

of

the

two

purposes,

being

cultivated as a forced, abusive metaphorical game, in which the object is tabooed

either

magically,

or

aesthetically

(as

in

the

poetry

of

Gongora,

Mallarmé,

or

Valéry), or intellectually (as in riddles), being forbidden to be named as such and

replaced by metaphors.

4

Ibidem

, p. 280.

5

Ibidem

, p. 282.

The Current Significance of Blaga’s Conception of Metaphorical Knowledge

59

The fact that abusive metaphors (also called

catachreses

) are admitted in

some cultures, but rejected in others means that they, metaphors, are imbued with

stylistic aspects,

which, however, arise from

a different

source than metaphors,

namely from the abyssal categories of the

stylistic matrix

.

2.

Significant

myths

and

trans-significant

myths

–

their

revelatory

and

stylistic specificity

From the analysis of metaphors, Blaga moves on to the analysis of myths,

which include a metaphorical efflorescence.

Myths are grouped, like metaphors, into two categories:

significant myths

and

trans-significant myths

. They differ, however, from metaphors, in that they all

aim to decipher a certain mystery (such as the origin of a certain field of activity),

having a revelatory character. At the same time, they differ from one category to

another: “Significant myths reveal, at least by their intention, meanings that may

also

have

a

logical

equivalent.

Trans-significant

myths

try

to

reveal

something

without a logical equivalent.”

6

Given that philosophical and scientific theories and hypotheses also aim to

be

revelations

of

the

mystery

(for

example,

to

capture

the

essence

or

cause

of

phenomena of the same kind), Blaga discriminates, first of all, between

significant

myths

(because

their

significance

can

be

expressed

through

a

logical

idea)

and

scientific

or

philosophical

ideas.

Both

forms

of

knowledge

–

both

myth

and

scientific

hypothesis

–

appeal

to

the

metaphorical

method

of

analogy,

but

the

mythical spirit exacerbates analogies (it is their slave), while the scientific spirit

controls

analogies (it is

their sovereign), being

able to

find in

a nonanology (a

dissimilarity between facts) an analogy (e.g.: the moon falls towards the earth) or,

conversely,

in

an

analogy

(a

similarity

between

facts)

a

nonanology

(e.g.:

the

whale is not a fish, but a mammal).

Another difference between myth and scientific hypothesis, Blaga notes,

concerns the relationship between known facts and the revelation permitted by the

facts: myth

integrates

(assimilates) the known concrete facts to a revealed power

(impersonal

or

personal

–

I.N.R.

note),

while

scientific

hypothesis

cancels

the

observed facts

from

which it starts,

in

order to

retain only

their common note.

Indeed, to illustrate this difference, let us consider that the theory concludes that

all

people

are

mortal

by

generalizing

the

findings

about

individual

people

who

have died, but ignoring the cases

concrete, after the idea of all has been reached.

Instead,

in

the

Assyrian-Babylonian

myth

The

Epic

of

Gilgamesh

,

the

idea

of

man's mortal character emerges from the events experienced by Gilgamesh, who,

first,

lost

his

friend

Enkidu,

because

he

had

refused

the

goddess

Ishtar,

then,

having gone in search of eternal youth, finds out where the flower of immortal

6

Ibidem

, p. 291.

60

Ioan N.

Roșca

youth is found, picks it, but it is stolen from him by the snake, which symbolizes

precisely man's fall from Paradise, through which he became perishable.

In

connection

with

the

difference

mentioned,

another

difference,

Blaga

notes,

consists

in

the

fact

that

the

vision

reached

by

the

myth

is

made

up

of

vitalizing, animated elements, which participate in human life, while the vision

constructed

by

science

is

made

up

of

devitalized

elements,

substituted

for

the

concrete world.

In trans-significant myths, the difference between myth and science fiction

is

even

clearer

in

that

these

myths,

being

much

more

extensive

and

developed

than the significant ones, no longer have a logical equivalent, a precise meaning,

but are "a kind of revelations that themselves hide an ultimate secret"

7

. To try to

attribute certain meanings to them is to transform them into allegories, but what

they reveal is only revelatory through myth, just as "what is 'poetry' in a poem

cannot be translated into prose"

8

. They cannot be a kind of collective dreams that

would

be

an

expression

of

the

human

unconscious,

with

all

its

monstrous

tendencies (as psychoanalysis claims), because myths, which are "the first great

manifestations of a culture", will always bear the imprint of stylistic factors, "will

be shaped, internally, by the abyssal categories of a people", while "the dream, the

one on the psychological level, is a-stylistic, like any natural phenomenon"

9

.

3.

Metaphysical-scientific metaphorism and its difference from mythical-

poetic metaphorism

According to Blaga, metaphors and style are present not only in poetry and

myth,

but

also

in

metaphysics

and

science.

He

states:

“A

cultural

creation

(mythical, artistic, metaphysical, theoretical-scientific) has two twinned aspects:

one

metaphorical,

the

other

stylistic.

A

cultural

creation

is

“metaphor”

and

“style”, in a kind of mystical union”

10

.

Metaphysics is metaphorical because it tends to reveal the cosmic mystery.

Blaga

gives

as

an

example

the

philosophical

system

of

Leibniz,

in

which

the

sensible

cosmos

(a)

is

explained

through

the

idea-image

of

monad

(b),

which

constitutes the metaphorical

core of the

entire Leibnizian philosophical

system.

Generalizing,

he

states:

"A

revelatory

metaphorical

core

is

found

in

any

metaphysical

conception:

regardless

of

whether

the

center

of

the

conception

is

called Brahman, Atman, idea, entelechy or ego, will, etc."

11

Similarly,

science

is

also

metaphorical,

because

it

seeks

to

reveal

the

essence

of

concrete

facts

from

one

domain

or

another

of

reality

through

7

Ibidem

, p. 297.

8

Ibidem

, p. 300.

9

Ibidem

, p. 301.

10

Ibidem

, p. 315.

11

Ibidem

, p. 311.

The Current Significance of Blaga’s Conception of Metaphorical Knowledge

61

metaphorical

ideas-images.

For

example,

in

physics

sound

is

understood

as

vibration, and light in the form of particles or waves.

Blaga

also

reveals

the

difference

between

mythical-poetic

and

philosophical-scientific

metaphorism.

The

main

difference

lies

in

the

fact

that

mythical

and

poetic

metaphors

respect

the

parity

between

the

metaphorically

amalgamated contents, while metaphors in philosophy and science do not respect

it, but substitute the concrete-sensible contents by the ideas-images through which

they explain them. For example, in the revelatory poetic metaphor "The sun, the

tear of God, falls...", even though the image of the sun (a) receives a new meaning

from the image of the "tear of God" (b) and is absorbed by it, it does not degrade,

but

preserves

its

existence

as

a

whole

that

is

absorbed

by

another,

more

vast

whole. In contrast, in metaphysical and scientific metaphors, the concrete-sensible

images

from

which

they

are

taken

as

a

starting

point

are

annihilated

and

substituted by the idea-images through which they are explained.

Returning

to

poetic

language,

Blaga

shows

that

not

only

explicit

metaphors,

but

the

entire

poetic

language

is

metaphorical

through

its

material,

rhythmic and sonorous side, which also has something analogous to the emotional

state or thought. Similar is the language of painting (through color, line, form),

sculpture (through matter and volume), music (through tones, melody, harmony),

architecture

(through

tectonic

mass

and

organization

of

space).

Generalizing,

Blaga states: “The substance, objectively embodied in the creation of culture of

any

nature,

is

in

the

final

analysis,

and

in

some

way,

always

a

revelatory

metaphor, or if you will a tissue, a weave of revelatory metaphors.”

12

As

for

the

stylistic

component

of

some

cultures

as

a

whole,

including

metaphysical

or scientific forms,

Blaga illustrates the stylistic characteristics of

the culture of ancient Greece, India and Byzantium.

Blaga

wants

to

distinguish

cultural

creations,

including

hypotheses,

theories

and

conceptions,

which

are

metaphorical

in

nature

and

bear

a

stylistic

imprint,

from

the

categories

circulated

by

philosophy,

which

lack

metaphorical

and stylistic aspects. As a result, the categories of receptive knowledge are not

myths (as Nietzsche claimed), but categories of this type, Blaga specifies, “(for

example

the

idea

of

substance

,

causality

,

unity

,

etc.)

undoubtedly

enter

constitutively into “myths”, as well as into empirical knowledge”

13

. In fact, as he

explicitly

claims:

“Any

revealing-metaphorical

act

already

implies

categorical

conditions”

14

.

Indeed,

in

the

complex

process

of

empirical

or,

more

precisely,

experimental knowledge, we cannot seek, for example, the cause of some facts if

12

Ibidem

, p. 315.

13

Ibidem

, p. 324.

14

Ibidem

, p. 325.

62

Ioan N.

Roșca

we do not already have the idea of causality. Or, in a cultural act, in the creation

of a poem, we cannot metaphorically potentiate the usual expression of a fact, if

we do not have expressed the idea of that fact, which in turn presupposed a certain

categorical idea, such as the idea of

unity

or

identity

of facts of the same kind.

4. The categories of consciousness and the categories of the unconscious,

present in all creations

Blaga distinguishes

the categories of receptive knowledge

, which belong

to

consciousness

and

are

expressed

through

ideas

that

govern

receptive

(

paradisiacal

)

knowledge,

achieved

through

the

enstatic

intellect

,

from

the

abyssal

categories

,

which,

in

the

form

of

a

stylistic

matrix

,

belong

to

the

unconscious

and

generate

the

stylistic

aspects

of

a

culture.

The

categories

of

receptivity form a constant structure, they can increase numerically, but without

changing

the

structure,

and

are

or

tend

to

become

universal,

while

"the

unconscious

stylistic

matrix

is

constituted,

above

all,

of

a

kind

of

categorical

places,

which

can

be

occupied

by

certain

specific

categories

only

through

alternation"

15

. For example, among the main categorical places, there is

the spatial

horizon categorical place

and

the temporal horizon categorical place

, the spatial

one being

occupied by the categories

infinite three-dimensional

space

, or

wavy

space

, or

flat space

, or

vault space

, etc., and

the temporal

one – by

the categories

time-pool

,

or

time-river

,

or

time-cascade

.

By

changing

some

categories

with

others or by combining two categories into a hybrid one, a multitude of stylistic

matrices

can

be

created.

They

differ

from

one

culture

to

another,

or

from

one

cultural stage to another of one and the same culture. Therefore, unlike the a priori

structures of receptivity, which tend towards constancy and universality, a priori

stylistic

matrices

present,

under

certain

conditions,

variation

and

individualization. In general, matrices differ from one culture to another, but also

retain some common categories of one or another categorical place. It follows, as

Blaga argued in his work Horizon and Style, delimiting himself from Spengler's

theory about an autonomous soul of each culture, that: "The stylistic matrix of one

culture and the stylistic matrix of another culture often contain various common or

related factors."

16

In

a

cultural

community,

there

are

also

individual

styles.

Namely:

sometimes

the

individual

adds

his

categories

to

the

ethnic,

community

ones,

differing from the ethnic only by peripheral categories, sometimes he differs from

the

ethnic

also

by

some

categories

“of

primary

importance”

(p.

363),

never,

however, by all: “At least a few, of the important ones, are always collective.”

17

15

Ibidem

, p. 136.

16

L. Blaga,

Orizont și stil

, în vol. Lucian Blaga,

Trilogia culturii

, E.L.U., București, 1969, p. 114.

17

Ibidem

, p. 363.

The Current Significance of Blaga’s Conception of Metaphorical Knowledge

63

Blaga’s

conception

of

knowledge

through

metaphorical

imagination

implies the distinction between paradisiacal knowledge, focused on the en-static

intellect and the Kantian a priori categories, which shape empirical and inductive-

scientific knowledge, and luciferic knowledge, governed by the ec-static intellect,

which tempts the mysteries behind empirical and inductive-scientific knowledge.

Thus, plasticizing

metaphors are based on an imagination that gravitates in

the

sphere

of

paradisiacal

knowledge,

while

revelatory

metaphors

presuppose

an

imagination

anchored

in

the

sphere

of

luciferic

knowledge.

At

the

same

time,

given that metaphors of any kind are inserted into the language of various forms

of

culture,

which

carry

a

stylistic

stigma,

they

also

involve

the

unconscious

categories of the stylistic matrix, which generate style.

5.

The importance of Blaga's conception of metaphorical knowledge

Through his conception according to which metaphorical knowledge falls

within

the

sphere

of

paradisiacal

and

luciferic

knowledge

and

is

present

in

all

types

of

cultural

creations,

which

also

engage

noological

categories,

Blaga

managed to personally resolve several ambiguities in the field of the philosophy

of culture, such as the definition of man as a metaphorizing man, the distinction

between

paradisiacal,

so-called

natural

truth

and

the

truth

of

stylistic,

luciferic

creations, the distinction between natural beauty and artistic beauty, etc.

Blaga's conception of metaphorical knowledge is particularly fruitful and

current also in terms of understanding culture as a whole if we consider the fact

that the metaphorizing and culturally creative individual affirms himself not only

through

metaphorical

imagination,

but,

together

with

this,

also

through

the

en-

static intellect and the ec-static intellect, as well as through the abyssal categories

of the unconscious, both individual and collective.

A

first

current

significance

of

Blaga's

conception

of

the

presence

of

metaphorical imagination in all cultural creations consists in explaining the unity

of

culture

through

the

co-presence

in

the

various

forms

of

culture

of

the

same

cognitive faculties, namely: metaphorical imagination, en-static intellect, ec-static

intellect and the collective unconscious, which is also reflected in the individual

unconscious.

Another

current

significance

of

Blaga's

conception

of

the

metaphorical

character of culture consists in explaining the autonomy of the forms of culture by

the

fact

that

each

form

engages

the

metaphorical

imagination

and

the

other

faculties of human subjectivity in a certain proportion, different from one form to

another.

Blaga's conception of the metaphorism of culture is also current in that it

supports

the

communicability

of

great

cultures

by

the

fact

that

the

metaphors

incorporated

in

the

forms

of

a

culture

are

stylistically

shaped

by

the

stylistic

matrix of that culture, which also contains various factors common or related to

those of the stylistic matrix of another culture.

64

Ioan N.

Roșca

Blaga's conception of the stylized metaphorism of culture is important and

current

also

because,

without

denying

the

communicability

of

cultures,

it

also

admits their national character both through the stylistic factors specific to each

culture

and

through

the

cosmological

structuring

of

all

the

stylistic

factors

it

contains. In relation to the national specificity of each stylistic matrix, it is also

worth remembering the idea argued by the Romanian philosopher, according to

which all stylistic matrices are equivalent in value.