Philosopher L. Peluričius was awarded the Independence Scholarship

He was awarded the scholarship at the Independence Day celebration in the Seimas.

The independence scholarship awarding committee awarded the scholarship to L. Peluritis’ project “State building as a cultural task in a world of broken ties: reactualization of the cultural philosophy of Stasios Šalkauskis”.

The aim of this project is to rethink the cultural philosophy and political ideas of one of the most important modern Lithuanian philosophers, S. Šalkauskis (1886–1940), taking into account the changed geopolitical context, as well as in the light of the new theories of political philosophy and nationalism.

“Laurynas Peluritis has chosen a hot topic and he is well prepared to take it on,” Virgis Valentinavičius, chairman of the Independence Scholarship, said in the Seimas

“I am sincerely grateful to the Independence Scholarship awarding commission for evaluating and encouraging me to return to the thoughts of one of the most important Lithuanian philosophers – Stasios Šalkauskis – and I also thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I am not in any special way worthy of this scholarship, but I believe that it is worthy of the research I am starting,” L. Peluritis said while receiving the scholarship.

“What can Šalkauskis teach us today? The muse’s song is important and necessary for weapons and defenders, but it is also necessary to understand what and why we want to defend against the threat that comes from the East,” said L. Peluritis.

This year’s scholarship winner L. Peluritis was born on September 24, 1990 in Vilnius. He graduated from Vilnius Karoliniškii Gymnasium, studied at Vilnius University, obtained a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 2014 and a master’s degree in 2017.

In 2017-2022, he studied for a doctorate at Vilnius University, Faculty of History. In December 2022, he defended his doctoral thesis “Ola and two suns. Philosophy in Soviet Lithuania (1944–1986). Institutions, personalities, ideas”.

From 2014 until now, he has been a permanent collaborator of Naujoi Židinios-Aidau and Mažojis studios, in 2016-2020 L. Peluritis was the director of Naujoi Židinios-Aidau.

Since 2023, he has been teaching at the Faculty of Philosophy and History of Vilnius University and working as the head of research and analytics at the “European Right Institute”.

Research areas of the scientist L. Peluritis – 20th century. History of Lithuania, history of Lithuanian philosophy, political philosophy and history of concepts and ideas.

The State Independence Scholarship is awarded annually to young scientists in the fields of humanities and social sciences for scientific research important to the strengthening of Lithuania’s statehood, related public activities and science popularization works, as well as for the implementation of a scientific research project submitted to a competition for a scholarship.

The State Independence Scholarship is awarded every year on March 11 – the day of the restoration of Lithuania’s Independence.