A Man from the East and Another from the West

Abstract

The world changed dramatically because of both World Wars. Humans felt a strong urge to return toward nihilism, revolt and toward the absurd. The wars engendered the distrust of rationalism, of the Cartesian philosophy. This trauma produced a confessional type of literature, engaged in a political cause. The article first briefly presents the historical interwar context in Romania and France and the respective countries' attraction to communism after the Second World War, especially because of the communists' implication in the Resistance movement. The article, then, focuses on two philosophers, Cioran and Sartre, who devoted their writings to and against totalitarianism. If Cioran pledged for the Iron Guard in the 1930s, Sartre supported communism long after the Soviet invasion in Eastern Europe and despite the efforts of Eastern intellectuals to make all communist atrocities public. The political philosophies of both Cioran and Sartre are based on the same ingredients as their subjective philosophy: the man and his feelings toward the system. The two philosophers have many things in common. Both oscillated between being convinced liberals and experienced totalitarians, neither properly internalizing the benefits or side effects of either side. Even if this article represents just a bird's eye view of Cioran's and Sartre's political options, there are many similarities among their subjective philosophies, influences and arguments deployed in their writings.