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Vasile Pogor

Vasile V. Pogor
Vasile Pogor photograph.jpg
Born August 20, 1833
Iași, Moldavia
Died March 20, 1906(1906-03-20) (aged 72)
Bucium-Iași, Kingdom of Romania
Era 19th-century philosophy
Region Western
School Junimea, Evolutionism, Positivism, Environmental determinism, Liberal conservatism, Freethought
Main interests
philosophy of history, Romanian philosophy, Buddhist studies

Vasile V. Pogor (Francized Basile Pogor; August 20, 1833 – March 20, 1906) was a Moldavian, later Romanian poet, philosopher, translator and liberal conservative politician, one of the founders of Junimea literary society. Raised in the aristocratic circle of Iași, and educated in the French Empire, he had a career in law. He was a civil servant during the United Principalities regime, held seats and commissions in the Assembly of Deputies, and, after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania, was Mayor of Iași City. Although he had a major role in creating the Conservative Party, by fusing together the various "White" political clubs and Masonic Lodges, Pogor was more loyal to the Junimist inner faction, and stood by it when it split with the other Conservatives.

An irreligious evolutionist, and taking an interest in Buddhist studies, Pogor represented the Positivist cell at Junimea. He was also one of the first locals to study the work of Henry Thomas Buckle, integrating Bucklean concepts into Junimea's critique of nation building. He supported Romania's Westernization within a conservative framework, tempering nationalist presumptions and valuing a culturally pluralistic society. The notoriously indolent and improvident Pogor had a preference for orality, and was sought after for his Voltairian wit. He left few written works, and many unfulfilled projects, but influenced Romanian literature as a cultural promoter, sponsor, and the first local expert on Charles Baudelaire. He was known to his Junimea colleagues as a one-man "contemporary library".


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