THE PHILOSOPHY OF BEING A HUMAN IN INGA BAKHTADZE'S LITERARY ESSAYS

Abstract

A "man", as a general human phenomenon in all times and eras, does not seem to have any novel meaning in modern literature. However, the writer Inga Bakhtadze did manage to embody the new imagological philosophy of the essence of humanity. The problem is ancient with its prehistory starting from ancient times. "Know thyself" - the inscription of the Temple of the Oracle of Delphi, which Socrates made the axis of philosophical judgment, actually became the beginning of a new, anthropological era in the history of mankind. Since then, man has always been and will be the object of research of the "eternal problem".

Culturologist, art critic, musicologist,  historian, teacher and writer Inga Bakhtadze, with her usual spiritual aristocracy, refined Georgian language, and lively speech, perfectly manages to fit the entire philosophical anthropology into a few pages of texts. Within the framework of the present study, two essays are discussed: "If You Have Perceived" and "Again, About You, the Man!", which clearly show the author's attitude towards this phenomenon. For her, a person, a man is not measured by his length and width, the most important thing is a mysterious depth that the eye cannot see and the intellect cannot reach, it must be perceived.

The author chooses water as the defining criterion of man and humanity, and not by chance. Water in nature is a carrier of amazing positivity and negativity at the same time, just like man. In the process of searching for "man-sea", Inga Bakhtadze, with her usual originality and findings, offers us very interesting conceptual images-icons. For her, the border between humanity and inhumanity passes through the subconscious, the eternal confrontation between ego and alter ego as thesis and antithesis, between positive and negative charge, in which the winner is only the person who "encompasses the sea in himself”.  This is a self-seeker, a "stubborn" person who digs deep into his soul and tries to perceive the unknown essence, it is this "depth" that the writer sees as the beginning of personal freedom. The "only-born" can achieve this inner freedom and depth only if he realizes the greatest responsibility of being human, his mortality and transience. Inga Bakhtadze publicly "admits" her "failure" on the crooked path of perceiving the human essence, and she is well aware that this difficult but irreversible process continues forever. 

Keywords: concept, imagological image-icon, philosophical anthropology, man-sea, ego, alter-ego