The Lucid Pessimist

The Romanian born French philosopher and essayist Emil Mihai Cioran (1911-1995) is well-known in Continental Europe, especially France, and his works have been translated into Italian, Spanish, German, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Galician, Romanian, and even Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. In Europe, he is generally viewed as being a notable moral philosopher, a superb aphorist, and one of the greatest stylists of the French language, and is admired for his sardonic wit, and the elegance, lyricism, and thought provoking nature of his prose. In the Anglo-American world, though, Cioran is rarely taught at the college level or even in French philosophy courses, nor is he mentioned in standard surveys of philosophy.

This work provides an introduction to the controversial and overlooked thought and life of the Romanian-born philosopher E.M. Cioran (1911-1995) and argues for his significance as a thinker. It also comprehensively situates Cioran in regard to the Western philosophical tradition, and examines his deeply pessimistic views on fanaticism, history, utopia, suicide, the "initial stain," saints, and philosophy, as well as his relationship to existentialism and Asian thought.