User:GintautasM/sandbox

Gintautas Mažeikis

Gintautas Mažeikis born	14 January 1964, Vorkuta, Komi ASSR, Soviet Union

Gintautas Mažeikis is a Lithuanian philosopher, public intellectual, representative of speculative philosophy and speculative anthropology. Biography

Gintautas Mažeikis spent his childhood in Rokiškis and later in Šiauliai, Lithuania. Mažeikis attended Veduviškis primary school in Rokiškis District Municipality and Lingailiai in Šiauliai District Municipality. Then in 1974 – 1978 he was a pupil at Rėkyva secondary school in Šiauliai city. 1979-1983 became a student of Šiauliai Politechnical School and get diploma as technic-technologist of metalworking. During 1983-1986 he was invited to serve compulsory military service in Soviet Navy, Northern Fleet. After the military service, 1986-1991 he studied in Philosophical faculty of Saint Petersburg State University, specialization History of Philosophy, Medieval Ages and Renaissance under supervising of prof. dr. K. A. Sergeev. 1992-1996 – PhD studies in Vilnius University. The title of dissertation was “Symbolical thinking of Renaissance”, supervisor prof. dr. R. Plečklaitis. From 1998 Docent of Vilnius university. From 1996 Mažeikis was lecturer and then assistant professor at Šiauliai University, from 1998 - head of Department of Philosophy, Šiauliai University. He created and developed a few new program of studies: graduate studies in Philosophy and Public Sciences, postgraduate in Cultural studies. From 2000 he created The Centre of Cultural anthropology at Šiauliai University and became director of the one. He organized researches in the fields of Service learning, Cooperate education, Subcultural studies, Critics of Cultural studies and developed new graduate studies program „Cultural anthropology“. He became full professor of philosophy at Siauliai university in 2005. In 2008 he did the procedure of Habilitation in Vilnius University on the topic: ”Social constructivism and philosophical anthropology” where he developed ideas of inter-epistemology between philosophical anthropology and field researches of social and cultural anthropology. He considered phenomenon of new Shamanism, subcultural ecstatic, Service-learning, “baazar’s” social economic relationships, altered forms of consciousness and substituted forms of thinking from existential and Philosophical anthropology points of view. The other topic of his interests in that period was Propaganda and symbolical thinking based on the analysis of substituted forms of thinking, False consciousness, simulacrums, manipulation and absence of authentic anthropological experience. From 2008 Mažeikis became Head of department of Social and political theory in Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas and developed new postgraduate studies program „Social and political critique“ which was devoted to the Critical theory and Studies of Dissident movement in Central-Eastern Europe as well as philosophical critics of persuasion and Creative industries. He became a leader of new graduate studies program: Philosophy and political critics. From 2015 he became a full professor of philosophy in Vytautas Magnus University. From the beginning of professional career Mažeikis was interested into post-Cassirer studies of symbolical forms of thinking: magical, mythic, ideological, aesthetical, ethical and M. Heidegger’s interpretation of the Studia humanitatis. He considered forms, functions, configurations and trajectories of symbolical thinking dialectically. In Mazeikis book “Renaissance symbolical thinking” and articles he analyzed occult philosophy, utopia and studia humanitatis of Renaissance, Christian kabbalah of Baroque. In later researches he interpreted studia humanitatis in the critical context of Conditio humana and becoming of ideological and post ideological humanism. Studies in civic humanism and Niccolò Machiavelli motivated him to interpret phenomenon of False consciousness, Bad faith, origin of ideological thinking in XIX century, development of a propaganda and society of the cultural manifestations of XX century. Mažeikis develops Dialectic in the discussion with critical dialectics of Jean-Paul Sartre, Negative Dialectics of Theodor Adorno and post-Lacanian dialectics of Slavoi Žižek. He considered Altered state of consciousness, false consciousness, bad faith, the society of self-spectaclization, manipulation by using the concept of leadership as crucial elements of contemporary society development. Mazeikis criticizes new forms of hegemony that oppressed spontaneous Autonomism, freedom of social and cultural self-othering and creation of imaginary institutions of society. His major new philosophical concepts are: interdisciplinary epistemology, substituted forms of consciousness, continuous subcultural mutation, social and cultural self-othering, simulacrum leadership, society of self-spectaclization and others.

Works:

Mažeikis is active participant of international research projects related to the Conditio Humana and the Sublime in extreme situations, Service learning, Cooperate education, Cultural and Creative industries, Propaganda critics. Mazeikis is public and cultural, art activist. He participated in Lithuanian Sajudis meetings and Russian Democratic Front meetings in Lithuania and Sankt-Petersburg in the beginning of 1990, he organized or participated the defense of public spaces and public goods: Amphitheatre space in Šiauliai city, “Lietuva” cinema theater and protest-laboratories in Vilnius, Romuva cinema theater in Kaunas, supporting of teachers strikes in 2015, protest against discrimination of refugees (2016), protest against discriminatory Labor Law in Lithuania in 2016, protests against cutting of “street trees” in Kaunas city. His political views are autonomism and left-libertarianism.

Books

Symbolical thinking of Renaissance (Renesanso simbolinis mąstymas) (1998) Margins: webs of thoughts (Paraštės: minčių voratinkliai) (1999) Pragmatics and analytics of Philosophical Anthropology (Filosofinės antropologijos pragmatika ir analitika) (2005) Cooperative studies (Kompetencijų ugdymo sistema taikant kooperuotų studijų metodą) (2008) Propaganda and symbolical thinking (Propaganda ir simbolinis mąstymas) (2010) After lord and serve: dialectics of leadership and mastership. (Po pono ir tarno: lyderystės ir meistrystės dialektika) (2012) Self-Otherings: Metamorphoses of consciousness (Įsikitinimai: sąmoningumo metamorfozės) (2013) The society of the spectacle. The critics of self-spectaclization. Edited by G. Mažeikis, J. Zanki. (Društvo spektakla. Kritika samospektaklizacije) (2016)