Living and dying on the edge in the digital age. An interview with Andrei Vieru on why closure and boundaries matter in science, art, and life

ABSTRACT

This conversation elaborates on the latest work of the Paris-based writer, philosopher, translator, mathematician and pianist Andrei Vieru, where he maintains that human freedom is inseparable from the idea of closure. Vieru’s model is rooted in the topological semantics of modal logic and provides valuable epistemological insights for the broader community of scholars (death and grief scholars, social scientists, humanists) as well as for policymakers, civil social actors and, generally, for all existentially concerned individuals in times of eroding democracies and pressing global risks. In this dialogue conducted during 2023 in face-to-face sessions and via email exchanges between Paris and Bucharest, Vieru reflects on what is at stake philosophically, artistically and existentially when humans are confronted with the radical openness of possibilities brought by contemporary challenges like global crises and digital technologies.

KEYWORDS:

• Death studies
• topological semantics
• boundaries
• J. S. Bach
• Emil Cioran
• Romania

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Vieru sees Isaiah Berlin’s (2002) positive freedom as a process of adding boundaries to a specific area and Berlin’s negative freedom as the very boundary of that area.

2. Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (1901–1965) was the first Communist leader in Romania (1947–1965). He was the first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party (1944–1954, 1955–1965) and the first Communist Prime Minister of Romania (1952–1955), known for initiating the de-Stalinisation process in Romania.

3. Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu (1900–1954) was a prominent Romanian communist personality who played a crucial role in the coming to power of the communist regime, in 1944. He was later accused of disloyalty by Gheorghiu-Dej, executed in 1954, and rehabilitated post-mortem by Ceaușescu, in 1968.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by EU CHANSE Call. DiDe project number: 472.

Notes on contributors

Adela Toplean

Adela Toplean is a Romanian death scholar, writer, and artist based in Bucharest. Her books are Pragul și neantul. Încercări de circumscriere a morții [The Threshold and the Void. Attempts to Circumscribe Death] (Polirom 2006) and Moartea modernă între poetică și tanatologie [Modern Death, between Poetics and Thanatology] (Editura Universității din București, 2016). She is a lecturer in Interpersonal Communication and Microsociology at the Faculty of Letters (University of Bucharest) and a Principal Investigator in the European research consortium ‘Digital Death. Transforming History, Rituals and Afterlife’ (DiDe) funded by EU CHANSE.