entre and Periphery in Emil Cioran and Mircea Eliade
Centre and Periphery in Emil Cioran and Mircea Eliade

Summary/Abstract: Reality is not an objective category, and it has therefore been constantly redefined in time and space, in accordance with various objective/subjective factors, related to a certain view of the world (Weltanschauung). Defining reality from a holistic/organic perspective, the renowned Romanian essayists and philosophers in exile, Emil Cioran and Mircea Eliade, consider the Absolute (in an open or implicit way) to be the centre of reality, revealed to man through authentic, individual life experience, which cannot be properly communicated by means of any philosophical, theoretical, or religions systems. Artistic and religious intuition are closer to the ultimate reality, as they are directly linked to the immediate life experience, escaping, as such, the speculations provided by any logical system. This view is to be found in their Romanian predecessors, like M. Eminescu, L. Blaga, Nae Ionescu, and is also present in the philosophical thought of some outstanding representatives of their generation (Petre Ţuţea, Mircea Vulcănescu, Constantin Noica, Mihai Şora, Petru Comarnescu, etc.), who are, unfortunately, not adequately known outside Romania. The original views of Cioran and Eliade, only partially tied to 20th century existentialism, which is reinterpreted, actually continue and reshape the Romanian philosophical and literary model of ‘trăirism’. While escaping the materialistically-rooted 20th century existentialism, they put forward an original conception of reality, bringing thus a substantial contribution to nowadays thought and literature. This paper highlights the fact that the two Romanian thinkers, Cioran and Eliade, do not, essentially, have a different perspective on “reality”, as it is often thought.

• Details
• Contents