The pioneer of Greek enlightenment
A philosopher and scholar of the Greek Enlightenment, he produced important works in fields such as philosophy, mathematics, theology, history, and literature, as well as numerous publications and translations. He came into conflict with the conservative circles of his time and abandoned his teaching positions from time to time. As director of the Athos School, during the most important period of his life, he enjoyed considerable success, but was again forced to leave due to fierce opposition against him. It was during this period that he began writing his Logic, a work that he managed to publish in Leipzig in 1766. This pioneering study is a milestone in Modern Greek philosophy and pedagogy, as it constitutes a comprehensive work of systematic philosophy that adopts many positions of modern thought, in contrast to earlier scholasticism. Voulgaris was honored with high offices in the Russian court of Catherine the Great, but he also faced criticism from his contemporaries for conservatism.
Eugene Voulgaris, Archbishop of Slavini and Chersonese, philosopher and scholar, prolific writer, author of, among other works, a monumental treatise on logic, was a pioneer of the Enlightenment for the Greek nation. He was particularly admired for the breadth of his contribution to Modern Greek education, but he was also heavily criticized at one point, as he was considered an obstacle to further developments in the field of education.
He was born on August 11, 1716, in Corfu. He was given the name Eleftherios because on the day of his birth, the Turks lifted their siege of Corfu. He took the name Eugene when he was ordained a deacon in 1737. He studied under learned men such as Vicentius Damod, Antonios Katiforos, and the priest Kavvadias. From Corfu, he went to Ioannina to continue his studies, but left due to an incident. Some wealthy Epirotes sent him to continue his studies in Padua, Italy. There, the young Eugene came into contact with the latest developments in European thought in philosophy and the positive sciences. He learned Italian, French, German, and later Russian. In Pantova, he is associated with the Maroutsis brothers, who appointed him director of their Maroutsa School in Ioannina in 1742. There, he first came into conflict with the conservative spirit of the time, expressed in the person of the teacher Balanos Vasilopoulos. In 1750, he was forced to leave Ioannina and take over the management of the school in Kozani, while his reputation spread.
Three years later, Patriarch Cyril VI appointed him head of the Athoniada School, where Eugene demonstrated the full extent of his abilities.
A number of his students from Kozani followed him to his new position, and within a few years the total number of students had more than doubled. He remained head of the school for sixty-seven months, and this period was in every respect the most important and brilliant period of his life. Moreover, the epigram he wrote on the school gate, in the style of Plato’s Academy, shows the extent of his ambitions. For teaching purposes, during the decade 1740-1750, he translated and summarized, at an intense pace, works by foreign philosophers and scientists, including John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (An essay concerning the Human Understanding.) It is likely that Voulgaris was introduced to Locke’s work by his teacher Antonios Katiforos. This translation is important because the rejection of innate ideas and the identification of sensation as the source of ideas, together with the reflection introduced by Locke, help Voulgaris to distance himself from the climate of neo-Aristotelian scholasticism that Theophilos Korydalleas had imposed for a long time on the philosophical youth of the nation. However, Eugenios’ radicalism is tempered, as he will put forward, in his Logic, another source of ideas, the Apocalypse. This is perhaps the source of his philosophical eclecticism, of which he himself is proud, although he will later face intense criticism from his younger contemporaries.
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