The Nihilist as a Not-Man.An Analysis of Psychological Inhumanity

Ştefan BOLEA
The Nihilist as a Not-Man.An Analysis of Psychological Inhumanity
Institution: 
Faculty of Letters, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj
Author's email: 
stefan.bolea@gmail.com
Abstract: 

A new philosophical and anyhropological-psychological concept is needed for the alienated and radically different human being according to the nihilist Romanian-French philosopher E.M. Cioran. This concept of the not-man describes a post-anthropological subject, which is “inhuman" from a psychological point of view, emphasizing estrangement and otherness in the definition of humanity. I have compared Cioran’s provocative and unusual term with Nietzsche’s analysis of the overman – the difference between the two concepts proceeding from two conflicting nihilist perspectives – and I also have identified the not-man in the novel of the Japanese writer Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human. [*]

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[*] This paper is a result of a doctoral research made possible by the financial support of the Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007–2013, co-financed by the European Social Fund, under the project POSDRU/159/1.5/S/132400 -  “Young successful researchers – professional development in an international and interdisciplinary environment”.