Nietzsche and Cioran: The philosophy of crisis

The problem of the meaning of life constitutes the essence of philosophical and religious activity. On the other hand, the meaning of life, or the meaning of anything, is determined through its purpose and reference. When its purpose and reference are lost, it loses its meaning. If it is life which loses its meaning, individuals begin to experience deep existential concerns of crisis character. In this study, it has been argued that the philosophy of Nietzsche and Cioran is entirely a product of this kind of anxiety. This argument has been grounded in three sections.In the first section, it has been outlined how human concerns about meaning have been addressed by philosophy and religion for long periods. Within this framework, it has been suggested that, along with the belief in God and immortality, human existential concerns were somewhat appeased through an unquestionable ethics referred to by this belief until modern times. However, it has been expressed that roughly from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries onwards, the beliefs that soothed existential concerns began to shake, and human existential anxiety deepened into a universal crisis. In the second and third sections devoted to Nietzsche and Cioran, the thoughts of these philosophers have been interpreted in the context of the aforementioned theme of crisis. In the study, it has been attempted to show that Nietzsche's philosophy of overcoming the crisis converges with Cioran's hopeless philosophy, which asserts that the crisis is an insurmountable fate. In this regard, it has been argued that the main theme of Nietzsche and Cioran's philosophies is a product of an existential crisis based on the will to truth or meaning. Keywords: Existence, Crisis, Meaning of Life, Nietzsche, Cioran