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Single Idea 23068
[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 4. Anti-realism
]
Full Idea
When you know quite absolutely that everything is unreal, you then cannot see why you should take the trouble to prove it.
Gist of Idea
People who really believe anti-realism don't bother to prove it
Source
E.M. Cioran (The Trouble with Being Born [1973], 02)
Book Ref
Cioran,E.M.: 'The Trouble with Being Born', ed/tr. Richard Howard [Penguin 2012], p.27
A Reaction
Does the same apply to realists? There are at least genuine arguments in both directions. Presumably the thought is that realists have something they care about, but true anti-realists don't.
The
64 ideas
from E.M. Cioran
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]
|
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]
|
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]
|
19614
|
Lovers are hateful, apart from their hovering awareness of death
[Cioran]
|
19615
|
I want to suppress in myself the normal reasons people have for action
[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]
|
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]
|
19632
|
An axiom has no more authority than a frenzy
[Cioran]
|
19630
|
No great idea ever emerged from a dialogue
[Cioran]
|
19628
|
At a civilisation's peak values are all that matters, and people unconsciously live by them
[Cioran]
|
19633
|
We use concepts to master our fears; saying 'death' releases us from confronting it
[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]
|
23064
|
So-called wisdom is just pondering things instead of acting
[Cioran]
|
23063
|
The first man obviously found paradise unendurable
[Cioran]
|
23062
|
It is better to watch the hours pass, than trying to fill them
[Cioran]
|
23067
|
Suicide is pointless, because it always comes too late
[Cioran]
|
23066
|
Negation doesn't arise from reasoning, but from deep instincts
[Cioran]
|
23065
|
If only we could write like a reptile, of endless sensations and no concepts!
[Cioran]
|
23068
|
People who really believe anti-realism don't bother to prove it
[Cioran]
|
23069
|
Fear cures boredom, because it is stronger
[Cioran]
|
23071
|
We could only be responsible if we had consented before birth to who we are
[Cioran]
|
23070
|
We morally dissolve if we spend time with excessive beauty
[Cioran]
|
23072
|
Systems are the worst despotism, in philosophy and in life
[Cioran]
|
23073
|
Convictions are failures to study anything thoroughly
[Cioran]
|
23076
|
If people always acted without words we would take them for robots
[Cioran]
|
23075
|
A text explained ceases to be a text
[Cioran]
|
23074
|
In anxiety people cling to what reinforces it, because it is a deep need
[Cioran]
|
23077
|
The word 'being' is very tempting, but in fact means nothing at all
[Cioran]
|
23078
|
Opinions are fine, but having convictions means something has gone wrong
[Cioran]
|