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“The Last Messiah” by Peter Wessel Zapffe: An Overview and Critical Analysis

August 31, 2020 by Sam Woolfe 6 Comments

The Norwegian philosopher Peter Zapffe is little-known to most Anglophone readers. “The Last Messiah” is a 1933 essay that stands out as an important work in the sphere of philosophical pessimism. The views expressed are a kind of evolutionary existentialism. For Zapffe, angst, despair, and depression are due to our overly evolved intellect: we have an overabundance of consciousness. We think too much for our own good.

The Influence of Insomnia on the Life and Work of Emil Cioran

August 14, 2020 by Sam Woolfe 2 Comments

The Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran long struggled with insomnia, although he did not exclusively view it as a curse. He actually found insomnia to be an insightful condition, casting it as something distinctly human, as well as a state that could be highly productive for the philosopher.

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