Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2021

Department

Philosophy

Abstract

Emil Cioran offers novel arguments against suicide. He assumes a meaningless world. But in such a world, he argues, suicide and death would be equally as meaningless as life or anything else. Suicide and death are as cumbersome and useless as meaning and life. Yet Cioran also argues that we should contemplate suicide to live better lives. By contemplating suicide, we confront the deep suffering inherent in existence. This humbles us enough to allow us to change even the deepest aspects of ourselves. Yet it also reminds us that our peculiar human ability—being able to contemplate suicide—sets us above anything else in nature or in the heavens. This paper assembles and defends a view of suicide written about in Cioran’s aphorisms and essays.

Comments

This article was originally published in Southwest Philosophy Review, volume 37, issue 1, in January 2021. It can be accessed in its fully published form here: https://doi.org/10.5840/swphilreview202137123

Original Publication Information

Trujillo, Jr., G.M. "The Benefits Of Being A Suicidal Curmudgeon: Emil Cioran On Killing Yourself." 2021. Southwest Philosophy Review 37(1): 219-228.

DOI

10.5840/swphilreview202137123

ORCID

0000-0003-2534-5390

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