“The Gnostic Emile Cioran” – David TOPALĂ

An (often overlooked) giant in modern philosophy is Emile Cioran. Beyond his legendary critiques of culture and his contributions to existentialism and pessimism, Cioran resurrected Gnostic thought as a black mirror to a self-important, self-destructive society that continues today. We explore Cioran’s Gnostic insights and aphorisms – from the wrath of the Demiurge to the…

“Cioran’s clinamen”: a female Muslim reading – interview with Daria LEBEDEVA

Daria Lebedeva was born in the city of Odessa, Ukraine, and presently lives in Sweden. She obtained a PhD in Philosophy from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of Agata Bielik-Robson, with a thesis about Cioran’s clinamen: a case study of a philosophical influence (2012). It’s…

Money, happiness and eternal life – Greed | DW Documentary

“The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else"Ernest Becker, The Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality Can money and power ever make us happy? How much is enough? Our constant desire for more is part of our human nature. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PudZNM276CY But is greed getting the better of…

“The Demiurge” – CIORAN

The Demiurge is the most useful god who ever was.CIORAN, The New Gods (1969) The Demiurge With the exception of some aberrant cases, man does not incline to the good: what god would impel him to do so? Man must vanquish himself, must do himself violence, in order to perform the slightest action untainted by…

“The purpose of life” – Paul ERDÖS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW97QTNf5ig When they ask you: "What is the purpose of Life?" "Proof and conjecture, and keep the SF's score low." Now, the game with the SF is defined as follows: If you do something bad the SF gets at least two points. If you don't do something good which you could have done, the SF…

“An Unheard-of Reflection On (Against) The Image by Emil Cioran” – Leobardo VILLEGAS; Rodrigo MENEZES

An enigmatic text, mostly unheard-of by even the most knowledgeable experts in the matter of Cioran, is among the selected writings that compose Contra la Historia [Against History], a collection of aphorisms and essays edited by Esther Seligson, with the purpose of diffusing Cioran's writings in the Spanish-speaking world when his books were just starting…

“Encounters with the void” (E.M. Cioran)

The Hudson Review, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring, 1970), pp. 37-48 Transl. by Frederick Brown THE MORE WE PONDER Buddha's last exhortation: "Death is inherent in all compound things. Work relentlessly for your salvation"-the more we are disturbed by the impossibility of feeling ourselves an aggregate, a transitory, if not fortuitous combination of elements. We…

“Gazing Into the abyss” – David BROMWICH

The New York Times, january 19, 1975 E. M. Cioran fled Rasinari, Rumania, to settle in Paris. France, in 1937. He was then in his twenties, just out of the university, and exile—the necessary condition of sympathy for a prophet—seems to have been his first and final calling. Alone and unfettered, he dwells in a…

“The new gods” (E. M. Cioran)

The Hudson Review, Vol. 21, No. 1, 20th Anniversary Issue (Spring, 1968), pp. 39-52. Translated by Frederick Brown. * Whoever finds it interesting to consider the unfolding pageant of irreducible ideas and beliefs would do well to fix his attention on the first centuries of the Christian era. There he will find the very model…

“The evil demiurge” (E. M. Cioran)

The Hudson Review, vol. 20, no. 2 (Summer, 1967), pp. 189-200. Translated by Frederick Brown from CIORAN, E. M., "Le mauvais démiurge", Le mauvais démiurge. Paris: Gallimard: 1969. Man, apart from a few anomalies, does not have a bent for the good; what god would prompt him to it? To perform the tiniest act untainted…