Merab Mamardashvili

Merab Mamardashvili (September 15, 1930 – November 25, 1990) was a Georgian philosopher. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at Moscow State University in 1955. From 1968 to 1987, he served as the deputy editor of the scientific journal "Voprosy Filosofii" ("Questions of Philosophy"). He held professorships at Moscow State University and Tbilisi State University, and was a senior research fellow at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Science. He also headed a department at the Tsereteli Institute of Philosophy at the Georgian Academy of Sciences from 1987 to 1990. Mamardashvili died of a heart attack at Moscow Vnukovo airport on November 25, 1990. His work was influenced by René Descartes and classical German philosophy, particularly Immanuel Kant. He contributed to the rationalist theory of perception and focused on the general gnoseological notion of processes of analysis and synthesis, the methodology of science, the role of consciousness in social being, and the relationship between consciousness and aesthetics. He considered consciousness the ultimate subject of philosophy and coined notable phrases such as "consciousness is paradoxicalness impossible to get used to." Though few books were published during his lifetime, his lectures were recorded and published posthumously, earning him the moniker "Russian (or Georgian) Socrates." His interests centered on human personality, freedom, responsibility, and the role of philosophy in life and culture.