Gabriel Liiceanu is a Romanian philosopher. He graduated from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy in 1965, and from Faculty of Classical Languages in 1973. He earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Bucharest in 1976. Between 1965 and 1975, Liiceanu was a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, and between 1975 and 1989 at the Institute of Art History. He received a fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation between 1982 and 1984. He has been the manager of Humanitas publishing house since 1990. He has been professor at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy since 1992. Liiceanu is also a founding member of the Group for Social Dialogue, president of the Romanian Publishers' Association, and member of the scientific council of New Europe College. Between 1998 and 2001, he was a member of the Romanian National Television's Administrative Board. He was greatly influenced by his mentor, Constantin Noica, especially during the time spent at Păltiniş. Noica, a Romanian philosopher known abroad as well as in the country, used to take his most valuable students and followers to his small house at Păltiniş, where he would teach them what they afterwards called "not philosophy lessons, but spiritual experiences". Another Noica follower who was invited to Păltiniş was Andrei Pleșu. Liiceanu refers to that experience in his books as the "Păltiniş School" and the term began to be widely accepted and used in Romanian, as well as European, philosophy. Liiceanu continued to publish well into the 2000s, and he remains a mainstream figure in Romanian intellectual public life, with close connections with Andrei Plesu, Monica Lovinescu and Virgil Ierunca. One critic, Gabriel Andreescu, suggested that Liiceanu allegedly facilitated extremism by allowing his publishing house to edit the works of inter-war Romanian figures whom Andreescu accused of being "ideologues of right-wing extremism".
Work
Books
Tragicul. O fenomenologie a limitei şi depăşirii, 1975
Încercare în politropia omului şi a culturii, 1981
Jurnalul de la Păltiniş. Un model paideic în cultura umanistă, 1983
Le Journal de Păltiniş, La Decouverte, Paris, 1998
Paltiniş Diary, CEU Press, Budapest and New York, 2000
Epistolar, 1987, coauthor and editor
Apel către lichele, 1992
Cearta cu filozofia. Eseuri, 1992
Despre limită, 1994
De la limite, Ed. Michalon, Paris, 1997
Itinerariile unei vieţi: EM. Cioran urmat de Apocalipsa după Cioran. Trei zile de convorbiri - 1990, 1995
Itineraires d'une vie: E.M. Cioran suivi de Les Continents de l'insomnie, Ed. Michalon, Paris, 1995
Apocalypsen enligt Cioran, Dualis Forlags, Ludvika, Suedia, 1997
Declaraţie de iubire, 2001
Uşa interzisă, 2002
Om şi simbol. Interpretări ale simbolului în teoria artei şi filozofia culturii, 2005
Despre minciună, 2006
Despre ură, 2007
Scrisori către fiul meu, 2008
Întâlnire cu un necunoscut, 2010
Întâlnire în jurul unei palme Zen, 2011
Meeting with a Stranger
His books are currently being published in Brazil by Editora Ecclesiae.
