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Existentialism. What is the meaning of life?. Existentialism Defined. Focuses on the condition of human existence, and an individual's emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts, in creating meaning and purpose in a meaningless life.
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Existentialism What is the meaning of life?
Existentialism Defined • Focuses on the condition of human existence, and an individual's emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts, in creating meaning and purpose in a meaningless life. • Existential philosophers often focused more on what they believed was subjective, such as beliefs and religion, or human states, feelings, and emotions, such as freedom, pain, guilt, and regret, as opposed to analyzing objective knowledge, language, or science.
Distinctions • The notion of the Absurd contains the idea that there is no meaning to be found in the world beyond what meaning we give to it. Anything can happen to anyone for any reason, which promotes existential angst. • Existentialism asserts that people actually make decisions based on the meaning to them rather than rational thought. • Despair in existentialism is the reaction to a breakdown in the defining qualities of one's self. For example, an athlete who loses his legs in an accident may despair if he has nothing else to fall back on, nothing on which to rely for his identity. He finds himself unable to be that which defined his being. • The existentialist concept of freedom is often misunderstood where almost anything is possible and where values are inconsequential to choice and action. But one is responsible for one’s values and actions.
Kierkegaard • The early 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard is regarded as the father of existentialism. He maintained that the individual is solely responsible for giving his or her own life meaning and for living that life passionately and sincerely, in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation, and boredom.
What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain knowledge must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. ... I certainly do not deny that I still recognize an imperative of knowledge and that through it one can work upon men, but it must be taken up into my life, and that is what I now recognize as the most important thing. —Søren Kierkegaard, Letter to Peter Wilhelm Lund dated August 31, 1835
Modern day • Today, existentialists explore the potential consequences of the existence or non-existence of God. Some existentialists considered the meaning of life to be based in faith, while others noted self-determined goals. Existentialism became fashionable after World War II, as a way to reassert the importance of human individuality and freedom.
Victor Frankl • …was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of Existential Analysis. His best-selling book, Man's Search for Meaning (published in 1959): chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living.
Apply to Chris Mccandless • How does Chris McCandless approach the existential question of the meaning of life? • How does Jon Krakauer approach the existential question of the meaning of life? • What aspects of existentialism are relevant to this story?
