A REACTIONARY FASCINATION: EMIL CIORAN AND JOSEPH DE MAISTRE

The aim of this paper is to examine Cioran’s interpretation of Maistre’sreactionary thought. Cioran judges the philosophical work of De Maistre as a usefulinstrument to investigate the Twentieth century ideological debate on Revolution,with specific reference to the issue of the engagement of philosophers in politics.Through the analysis of Maistre’s criticism of revolutionary thought at the time ofthe Enlightenment, Cioran proposes an insightful deconstruction of the ideologicaldichotomy between Reaction and Revolution. Indeed, the paper will show thatCioran’s understanding of De Maistre implies both a radical criticism of Sartre’sexistentialism and an original interpretation of Schmitt’s Political Theology.