beginner’s beliefs and cioran
as the title suggests i’m a beginner and a total newbie to the ideas of philosophical pessimism and honestly philosophy as a whole, i’ve been into philosophy for about a year and mainly watched video essays as i think im still too stupid to read dense texts (only really read Camus and Dostoevsky but i think they’re more of novelists imo)
i recently discovered that apparently there was a thing called philosophical pessimism and honestly i think i’ve been a pessimist or at least sympathetic towards it for years without knowing even before i got interested in philosophy. with my experiences with mental health and acceptance of the fact life is meaningless and possibly being in an existential crisis right now i became very curious and did some research and discovered Emil Cioran
i would say my current philosophical beliefs are a mix of pessimism and absurdism, i agree that suffering is some universal constant and i believe pleasure is temporary cessation of pain, i also read some of Cioran’s aphorisms online and generally agreed with them, i think the reason why i got into philosophy in the first place was to answer my questions on life and pessimism seemed to answer many of them in a way i generally agree although i do have some questions on consciousness and lucidity and Schopenhauer’s Will (although i must admit i don’t really understand it very well). i must say i do find absurdism comforting and pessimism as well to an extent, when i ask myself existential questions i often find myself talking about the universe’s indifference to us and the absurdity of suffering, and the cycle of pain and pleasure and how we’re never fully satisfied in life
i think Cioran made me really consider the questions on consciousness and lucidity, i think while suffering can generate pain and pleasure (in the form of beauty and the arts, many people who were in despair expressed it via writing or other creative mediums), i’m not entirely sure if in that case consciousness can still be considered a net-negative or is it neutrally valuable, and the question on “unaliving” i’m still very unsure about or does “more truth=better life”, i probably won’t give all my questions on pain and pleasure here since it’ll be too long but yall can ask if you’re interested, also i think it would be really helpful if somebody could give a quick overview of Cioran’s beliefs and i’m not entirely sure about the little nuances in them or how he may differ from other pessimists
finally, i was just wondering if there are any recommendations for me to better understand pessimism, im considering reading On The Heights of Despair by Cioran but are there any other books? perhaps philosophical fiction if there are any on pessimism, thanks!