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Single Idea 19604
[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 3. Angst
]
Full Idea
Whereas all beings have their place in nature, man remains a metaphysically straying creature, lost in Life, a stranger to the Creation.
Gist of Idea
Unlike other creatures, mankind seems lost in nature
Source
E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 1 'The Indirect5')
Book Ref
Cioran,E.M.: 'A Short History of Decay', ed/tr. Howard,Richard [Penguin 2010], p.27
A Reaction
Nice challenge to the Aristotelian idea that we can identify the nature and function of man, and derive an ethics from it. This idea seems to state the essence of existentialism, perhaps better than anything in Sartre. We should have stayed in Africa?
Related Ideas
Idea 12281
Man is intrinsically a civilized animal [Aristotle]
Idea 3843
There is no human nature [Sartre]
The
47 ideas
from 'A Short History of Decay'
19627
|
Opportunists can save a nation, and heroes can ruin it
[Cioran]
|
19622
|
The pointlessness of our motives and irrelevance of our gestures reveals our vacuity
[Cioran]
|
19602
|
You are stuck in the past if you don't know boredom
[Cioran]
|
19619
|
To live authentically, we must see that philosophy is totally useless
[Cioran]
|
19620
|
Great systems of philosophy are just brilliant tautologies
[Cioran]
|
19621
|
Originality in philosophy is just the invention of terms
[Cioran]
|
19618
|
I abandoned philosophy because it didn't acknowledge melancholy and human weakness
[Cioran]
|
19624
|
Intelligence only fully flourishes at the end of a historical period
[Cioran]
|
19625
|
The ideal is to impose a religion by force, and then live in doubt about its beliefs
[Cioran]
|
19615
|
I want to suppress in myself the normal reasons people have for action
[Cioran]
|
19614
|
Lovers are hateful, apart from their hovering awareness of death
[Cioran]
|
19599
|
Ideas are neutral, but people fill them with passion and weakness
[Cioran]
|
19600
|
When man abandons religion, he then follows new fake gods and mythologies
[Cioran]
|
19623
|
Circles of hell are ridiculous; all that matters is to be there
[Cioran]
|
19616
|
As the perfect wisdom of detachment, philosophy offers no rivals to Taoism
[Cioran]
|
19617
|
Evidence suggests that humans do not have a purpose
[Cioran]
|
19611
|
No one has ever found a good argument against suicide
[Cioran]
|
19610
|
Religions see suicide as insubordination
[Cioran]
|
19626
|
Our instincts had to be blunted and diminished, to make way for consciousness!
[Cioran]
|
19603
|
Why is God so boring, and why does God resemble humanity so little?
[Cioran]
|
19605
|
Despite endless suggestions, no one has found a goal for history
[Cioran]
|
19604
|
Unlike other creatures, mankind seems lost in nature
[Cioran]
|
19606
|
We can only live because our imagination and memory are poor
[Cioran]
|
19612
|
The universe is dirty and fragile, as if a scandal in nothingness had produced its matter
[Cioran]
|
19613
|
It is pointless to refuse or accept the social order; we must endure it like the weather
[Cioran]
|
19608
|
Wisdom is just the last gasp of a dying civilization
[Cioran]
|
19601
|
Life is now more dreaded than death
[Cioran]
|
19609
|
If you have not contemplated suicide, you are a miserable worm
[Cioran]
|
19628
|
At a civilisation's peak values are all that matters, and people unconsciously live by them
[Cioran]
|
19631
|
The history of ideas (and deeds) occurs in a meaningless environment
[Cioran]
|
19629
|
A nation gives expression to its sum of values, and is then exhausted
[Cioran]
|
19630
|
No great idea ever emerged from a dialogue
[Cioran]
|
19633
|
We use concepts to master our fears; saying 'death' releases us from confronting it
[Cioran]
|
19632
|
An axiom has no more authority than a frenzy
[Cioran]
|
19634
|
Man is never himself; he always aims at less than life, or more than life
[Cioran]
|
19637
|
History is wonderfully devoid of meaning
[Cioran]
|
19636
|
Truth is just an error insufficiently experienced
[Cioran]
|
19641
|
If you lack beliefs, boredom is your martyrdom
[Cioran]
|
19640
|
No one is brave enough to say they don't want to do anything; we despise such a view
[Cioran]
|
19645
|
Some thinkers would have been just as dynamic, no matter when they had lived
[Cioran]
|
19638
|
Metaphysics is a universalisation of physical anguish
[Cioran]
|
19642
|
Eventually every 'truth' is guaranteed by the police
[Cioran]
|
19644
|
History is the bloody rejection of boredom
[Cioran]
|
19643
|
A religion needs to motivate killings, and cannot tolerate rivals
[Cioran]
|
19646
|
Values don't accumulate; they are ruthlessly replaced
[Cioran]
|
19639
|
We all need sexual secrets!
[Cioran]
|
19607
|
The mind is superficial, only concerned with the arrangement of events, not their significance
[Cioran]
|