About

“All my life, I have lived with the feeling that I have been kept from my true place. If the expression ‘metaphysical exile’ had no meaning, my existence alone would afford it one.” 

“Can it really be that for us existence means exile, and nothingness, home?”

 (Emil Cioran)

My name is Fernando Olszewski. I have a B.A. in economics from the University of North Dakota, a B.A. in philosophy from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Unirio), and a M.A. in philosophy from the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). My master's research was about how Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) and Emil Cioran (1911-1995) used anticosmic religions — e.g. Gnosticism, as well as branches of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity — to support their rejection of the world. This research was done under the supervision of professor Regina Schöpke, and it resulted in my master's dissertation, titled: ‘Pessimism and Gnosis: Schopenhauer, Cioran and the appropriation of anticosmic religions’ (in Portuguese: ‘Pessimismo e Gnose: Schopenhauer, Cioran e a apropriação das religiões anticósmicas’). Previously, between 2019 and 2021, I researched the nihilist and pessimist views of history and existence found in Cioran's works, under the supervision of professor Rossano Pecoraro, my academic advisor at Unirio. Part of that work explained some of the ethical implications of Cioran's pessimistic thinking — above all, his rejection of life and becoming.