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Single Idea 19620

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 3. Metaphysical Systems ]

Full Idea

The great philosophical systems are no more than brilliant tautologies.

Gist of Idea

Great systems of philosophy are just brilliant tautologies

Source

E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 1 'Farewell')

Book Ref

Cioran,E.M.: 'A Short History of Decay', ed/tr. Howard,Richard [Penguin 2010], p.50

A Reaction

This makes them sound pointless, but the terms used in the system all have some kind of reference, so the systems are in some way about the world, and not mere private games. At the very least, they are a wonderful branch of poetry.

Related Idea

Idea 19621 Originality in philosophy is just the invention of terms [Cioran]

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]
19618 I abandoned philosophy because it didn't acknowledge melancholy and human weakness [Cioran]
19621 Originality in philosophy is just the invention of terms [Cioran]
19620 Great systems of philosophy are just brilliant tautologies [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]
19610 Religions see suicide as insubordination [Cioran]
19611 No one has ever found a good argument against suicide [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]
19632 An axiom has no more authority than a frenzy [Cioran]
19633 We use concepts to master our fears; saying 'death' releases us from confronting it [Cioran]
19629 A nation gives expression to its sum of values, and is then exhausted [Cioran]
19631 The history of ideas (and deeds) occurs in a meaningless environment [Cioran]
19630 No great idea ever emerged from a dialogue [Cioran]
19634 Man is never himself; he always aims at less than life, or more than life [Cioran]
19636 Truth is just an error insufficiently experienced [Cioran]
19637 History is wonderfully devoid of meaning [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]