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Existentialism is a philosophical movement which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to it being created for them by deities or authorities or defined for them by philosophical or theological doctrines.
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Existentialism is a philosophical movement which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to it being created for them by deities or authorities or defined for them by philosophical or theological doctrines Existentialism focuses on the unique nature of the individual human agent
“Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.” • “In choosing oneself one does not choose to exist: existence is given and one has to exist in order to choose.” (Sartre) • “To act in bad faith is to turn away from the authentic choosing of oneself and to act in conformity with a stereotype or role.” (Sartre) • “Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” – Alan Keightley • Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying;And this same flower that smiles today,Tomorrow will be dying. • Robert Herrick,
Key features • Subjective rather than objective knowledge. • Based on the utter individuality of every single separate person • Scientific method involves generalisation- types, classes, species. Existentialism deals with this person, this butterfly.
Atheistic Existentialism • Atheistic Existentialism is the form of existentialism most commonly encountered in today's society. What sets it apart from theistic existentialism is that it rejects the notion of a god and his transcendent will that should in some way dictate how we should live. It rejects the notion that there is any "created" meaning to life and the world, and that a leap of faith is required of man in order for him to live an authentic life.In this kind of existentialism, belief in god is often considered a form of Bad Faith. Theistic Existentialism • Theistic existentialism is, for the most part, Christian in its outlook, but there have been existentialists of other theological persuasions (like Judaism). The main thing that sets them apart from atheistic existentialists is that they posit the existence of God, and that He is the source of our being. It is generally held that God has designed the world in such a way that we must define our own lives, and each individual is held accountable for his or her own self-definition.
Kierkegaard (1813-1855). He despised the way in which Hegal accounted for everything through reason. Religion was not an organised body that functioned through rules, set formulas, politics. Religion was rather a leap of faith. It cannot be reasoned through, but simply believed in. Truth was to be found in subjectivity. People in Industrial society are copies. On his tombstone Kierkegaard wanted only two words “That Individual”- Humans in mass industrial society are not individuals Nietzsche There is no absolute truth or knowledge regarding our existence. Nothing is absolute and certain. Humans should actualize our own potential for our own happiness, comfort and convenience. Nietzsche saw the world’s problem as a crisis of culture and , therefore of meaning. He later characterized this as the death of God.. He saw a time of nihilism approaching as a result of the decline in traditional religious beliefs and values. Nietzsche was convinced that God and religion were not a tenable means of explaining our existence. He saw the challenge of philosophy as being to reinterpret life and the world in a far more tenable way that God and religion could ever provide, and also to overcome nihilism. Existentialism
V When the wild geese fly over the pen, the domestic geese attempt to fly for a second or two remembering their origins, but this soon passes and they get on once more with their domestic existence.
Kierkegaard-to be a Christian in Christendom you need: No existential dimension need be present at all. Hence, his closing years of a short life, were marked by bitter controversy.
Three essential characteristics of Subjective knowledge • It cannot be passed on from one person to the next. • What is subjectively known always has the nature of a paradox. • Subjective knowledge is concrete, not abstract.
Radical Nihilist Dismissing all that had gone before him, including religion, philosophers and codes of morality. Those who view Nietzsche in this way see his sweeping negative comments as reducing all attempts to account for our existence to fiction and speculation. Providing a serious attempt to overcome nihilism. A more positive way of interpreting Nietzsche’s work is to view his concern over the speculated consequences of nihilism. Nietzsche
Nietzsche • He rejects the notion that there exists “ absolute truth or knowledge” regarding our existence. • Nietzsche saw the “God hypothesis” as unworthy of belief. He claimed that its invention was due to error and “all too human need”, He also dismissed associated concepts, such as the “soul as ontological fictions. • Nietzsche conceives the world as being an interplay of many different forces. • Will to power- life can be viewed as a series of power struggles and relationships. The meaning of life is to fulfill our potential. We can only do this by struggling and, as with any struggle, the strongest indivisdials win • Ubermensche- Superman- not to be confused with Nazi racial propaganda- a person who truly recognised the human condition • We actualise our own potential for one reason only- our own happiness, comfort and convenience.
Anguish • Kierkegaard and Sartre use the term to describe our consciousness of our freedom. It fills us with anguish precisely because we do no know what we will do! • Human beings are unpredictable creatures. • The archetypal example is the example of the experience one has when standing on a cliff where one not only fears falling off it, but also dreads the possibility of throwing oneself off. In this experience that "nothing is holding me back," one senses the lack of anything that predetermines you to either throw yourself off or to stand still, and one experiences one's own freedom.
Bad faith- any attempt to pretend that we are not free. • Sartre believed that the anguish we feel because we are conscious of our freedom can cause us to try to avoid such recognition. Such an attempt is illusory. • Sartre rejected any notion of objective values and so he could not recommend any particular lifestyle to which mankind should aspire. • His only recommendation is that we try our utmost to be authentic • To be fully aware of our choices and acknowledging that nothing determines them for us. • Freedom = responsibility • “A young frenchman asked Sartre whether he should help the Resistance effort by going to the aid of the free French forces in England, or stay with his mother in France. Sartre’s response was “you are free, therefore choose” • This may seem insensitive but it is illustrative of the belief that there is no prescriptive criteria upon which a decision could be made. • One cannot simply esacpe the anguish of freedom. Even choosing to reject one’s responsibilities is an exercise in freedom!
Bad faith is seen as any denial of free will by lying to oneself about one's self and freedom. This can take many forms, from convincing oneself that some form of determinism is true, to a sort of "mimicry" where one acts as "one should." How "one" should act is often determined by an image one has of how one such as oneself (say, a bank manager) acts. This image usually corresponds to some sort of social norm. • This doesn't mean that all acting in accordance with social norms is bad faith: The main point is the attitude one takes to one's own freedom, and the extent to which one acts in accordance with this freedom. A sign of bad faith can be something like the denial of responsibility for something one has done on the grounds that one just did "as one does" or that one's genes determined one to do as one did. Exactly how one lies to oneself is hard to get a hold of. Sartre denies the subconscious the power to do this, and he claims that the person who is lying to him/herself has to be aware that he/she is lying - that he/she isn't determined, or this "thing" he/she makes him/herself out to be.
Existence precedes essence A central proposition of existentialism is that existence precedes essence. This amounts to the assertion that the outer manifestation (existence) of an entity is more determinative than its inner being (essence). Asserting that "existence precedes essence" is a rebellion against the Platonic Ideas, the Forms, which in Plato's philosophy are the true reality behind appearances of things in the world.
Sartre's most famous example is that of a waiter: 'Let us consider this waiter in the cafe. His movement is quick and forward, a little too precise, a little too rapid. He comes towards the patrons with a step a little too quick .. his voice, his eyes express an interest a little too solicitous for the order of the customer .. he gives himself the quickness and pitiless rapidity of things .. the waiter in the cafe plays with his condition in order to realize it.' (Sartre, 1943)
To claim, then, that existence precedes essence is to assert that there is no such predetermined essence to be found in man. Instead, what one finds if one searches, is the concrete lived life of each individual. As Sartre puts it in his Existentialism is a Humanism: "man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards."
Reason as a problematic defense against anxiety • Emphasizing action, freedom, and decision as fundamental, existentialists oppose themselves to rationalism and positivism. That is, they argue against definitions of human beings as primarily rational. Rather, existentialists look at where people find meaning. Existentialism asserts that people actually make decisions based on what has meaning to them rather than what is rational. • The rejection of reason as the source of meaning is a common theme of existentialist thought, as is the focus on the feelings of anxiety and dread that we feel in the face of our own radical freedom and our awareness of death. Kierkegaard saw rationality as a mechanism humans use to counter their existential anxiety, their fear of being in the world: "If I can believe that I am rational and everyone else is rational then I have nothing to fear and no reason to feel anxious about being free." • Like Kierkegaard, Sartre saw problems with rationality, calling it a form of "bad faith", an attempt by the self to impose structure on a world of phenomena — "the other" — that is fundamentally irrational and random. According to Sartre, rationality and other forms of bad faith hinder us from finding meaning in freedom. To try to suppress our feelings of anxiety and dread, we confine ourselves within everyday experience, Sartre asserts, thereby relinquishing our freedom and acquiescing to being possessed in one form or another by "the look" of "the other" (i.e. possessed by another person - or at least our idea of that other person). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAH4klqLTXg
Questions • Outline two theories of the nature of human purpose and destiny. • In what ways might the advocates of these theories differ from religious believers, in their outlook on life?
A)What philosophical issues are being suggested by the picture? (3 marks) Describe and critically examine one of the concepts you have identified above. What idea about the self is suggested by this image? Key points: Existential concept of self: Fear of responsibility in making a choice for all when choosing for self; fear in the knowledge that we are condemned to be free; existential angst
