MAN: A BEING WHO QUESTS FOR MEANING

1. MAN: A BEING WHOQUESTS FOR MEANING (EXISTENTIALISM)

2. Meaning of EXISTENTIALISM: • Modern and contemporary periods are periods of advancement of knowledge • In this milieu, the demand for specialization was notably tremendous • Philosophers during this period were camping in different fields of philosophy

3. Some identified themselves in the field of Rationalism, others in Pragmatism, some in Idealism, and still others in Existentialism • Because of this faction and schism among philosophers, specialization was more or less justified

4. But what does specialization lead to? • Does not specialization push man to know more and more of the less and less? • For the existentialists, specialization of knowledge only creates dichotomy of the mind and life of man • This dichotomy leads man to man’s estrangement and betrayal of philosophy as such

5. …the situation of the time • Man, in the 19th and 20th centuries, is devoured by “homelessness,” “eclipse of value,” and lack of “metaphysical uneasiness” • The advancement of science and technology is a great factor of this human devastation

6. Because of the massive advancement of science and technology, man becomes “homeless” to himself; man is in darkness with his values; and man is no longer uneasy with himself because he has no self • It is a time of dehumanization, objectivization, and numeralization of man

7. All these lead to human estrangement, loss of identity, meaninglessness, and despair • And specialization in philosophy does not solve the problem, but simply leaves it per se • In this grim picture of man, the existentialists appear in the scene and want to snatch man away from being totally devoured by this reality

8. In what way can they do it? • To answer this, consider the etymological meaning of Existentialism, its salient points, and the views of the existentialist philosophers, specifically Sartre, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Jaspers and Frankl

9. …the etymological meaning • Existentialism is derived from the term existence • The term existence comes from the Latin word existere which means “to stand out,” “to emerge,” or “to come out from” • Thus, the term existence denotes emergence, standing out from, or coming out from being there

10. Existentialism emphasizes standing out, coming out, and emergence from what is actually given. • In this vein, Existentialism stresses the difference between existing and living. • To the existentialists, it is an imperative to every man not only to live but also to exist; man must not only live but also exist.

11. The modern and contemporary man is only living and not existing. • The vocation of these existentialists to exhort man not only to live but also to exist. • The existentialists see much richness in existing rather than in living. • The subsequent facts of simply living one’s life is to assume of a life that has no vitality, no responsibility, and no self-consciousness.

12. They keep on asserting: “Man must not only live, but also exist!” • Man should exist so that man can stand out, can emerge, and can assert himself despite all sorts of predicaments, problems, and frustrations in life. • Man’s fall does not mean man’s total damnation, but a new beginning for another struggle for existence. • It is a personal imperative on the part of man to soar up to the limits of his capabilities, to exist from nothing,in order to be something.

13. Salient Points in Existentialism • For the existentialists, particularly Martin Heidegger, man is the only kind of being that exists. • Only man has existence because man is the only kind of being who knows he knows he exists. • In light of this, man is the only grade of being who can question existence because he is the only of being who is conscious of his existence. • Therefore, because man is existing, man is not real.

14. For the existentialists, like Heidegger, God does not exist because God is Real. • God cannot have existence because God is eternal (no beginning and no end). • Existence always requires a beginning-a starting point. • When we say God does not exist, it does not mean that God is not real. • What is actually meant here is that the existentialists assign a new interpretation of the term existence.

15. Reality for the existentialists is richer than existence. • Reality is fullness, wholeness, completion, and perfection of being. • Existence, on the other hand, is not full, not whole, and not perfect, but is going to be full, to be whole, to be complete, and to be perfect. • Reality is made while existence is still to be made.

16. The above mentioned ideas explicate the fact that existentialism revolts and veers away from the Platonic-Aristotelian concept of man as a rational animal. • Per se existentialism is not a system of philosophy, but a way of philosophizing. • It cannot be a system because the existentialists do not like system; their way of philosophizing is not a school of thought, but a revolt against traditional philosophy.