The problem of life in Cioran's philosophy

Abstract

The research aims to highlight one of the major issues in Cioran's philosophy: the problem of life. He considers it synonymous with both pain and illness on one hand, and death on the other. This raises a pivotal existential question about whether such a life is worth living, despite the boredom, absurdity, and meaninglessness it entails. Ultimately, it concludes that the continuation of human life is a heroic act, justified only by the human desire for pain, as it is the only thing that provides a sense of existence and gives meaning to life. Furthermore, humans live it out of compulsion, lacking true freedom of choice; instead, they flee from freedom to avoid the responsibility of life's cruelty and absurdity, seeking comfort in the warmth and inevitability of fate. This necessitates a critical analytical presentation of Cioran's ideas, interspersed with a brief comparison to the views of some philosophers on the same issue, culminating in the extraction of results from the presentation, analysis, comparison, and critique.