ANDREW WYETHChristina’s World (1948)

A complex philosophy emphasizing the absurdity of reality and the human

responsibility to make choices and accept

consequences!

MARK ROTHKO

Untitled (1968)

Big Ideas of ExistentialismBig Ideas of Existentialism

Despite encompassing a huge range of

philosophical, religious, and political ideologies, the

underlying concepts of existentialism are simple…

Introductory Question:

• What do you know with absolute certainty?

(Perhaps the key question with which to begin any philosophical investigation)

“I am….”

Existentialism starts at the same point as Descartes’ philosophy – with your existence as the original certainty. You might not know anything else, but you at least know you exist (in some way) because you are thinking. As Descartes stated it:

“I think, therefore, I am.”

Cogito ergo sum.

Cogito ergo sum.

Existence Precedes EssenceExistence Precedes Essence

Cogito ergo sum.

Existentialism is the title of the set of philosophical ideals that emphasize the existence of the human being, the lack of meaning and purpose in life, and the solitude of human existence… “Existence precedes essence” implies that the human being has no essence (no essential self).

This means that Man is 1.Identified by his actions2.That He is responsible for his actions

EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE

Existentialism is the philosophy that holds your existence as your pre-eminent truth and

reality.

Existentialism in Main Themes:

We are FreeWe are Free

This is not referring to political freedom; rather that there are no psychological or metaphysical forces that determine the

person you become or the actions you take. You are free to be the person that you

choose. Rather than a blessing, this is a tremendous responsibility you must learn to

accept.

Our Existence is AbsurdOur Existence is Absurd

This means that we can give no logical sense or purpose to life – There is none

to be found.

Truth is SubjectiveTruth is Subjective

This means that what is true for one person might not be true for

another.

Then what?

Okay, thanks to Descartes, we know we exist.

To understand what Existentialism says about existence, think of the types of things a person might believe influences or controls their existence….

Such as….

• An Interactive God• Fate• Astrology• Murphy’s Law (& other laws)• Grandmother’s axioms• Human nature• Pre-destination• Freud’s sub-conscious mind

Then, imagine the universe without any of these!

That’s the Existential view of reality!

Existentialism says there is nothing that explains, guides or gives purpose to our

existence.

In short – you EXIST (have “BEING”) in total FREEDOM surrounded by NOTHINGNESS.

Sartre on existentialism:Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.(Being and Nothingness, 1943)

AbsurdismAbsurdism• The belief that nothing

can explain or rationalize human existence.

• There is no answer to “Why am I?”

• Humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe and any search for order will bring them into direct conflict with this universe.

GEORGIO DE CHIRICO

Love Song

It was during the Second World War, when Europe found itself in a crisis faced with death and destruction, that the existential movement began to flourish, popularized in France in the 1940s.

METAPHYSICS

Existence Precedes Essence– Thrown into meaningless world– Find our own meaning = essence

State of Becoming– Think & decide for yourself what you

will become– Self-actualization

Live Life to the Fullest

Existential Moment• Puberty – Selfhood – place in

world• Realize “self” in a world of

“selfs”• Responsibility for ourselves is

ours• Can’t rely on anyone else to take

responsibility for us.

REALITY• Final Reality resides within you• You are the center of your own universe• Reality lies within you• You are in charge• Reality is centered in yourself

Choice making and freedom• Plan what you want to become, but must

consider…• Consequences for our choices• OK to fail• Without failure no happiness or ecstasy• No unhappiness, no way to know happiness

Choice & Freedom• Resist losing oneself in a group

– Lose freedom• Resist giving right of choice or

freedom away to someone else– Making decisions for you– Never reach your essence

Helping Relationships

Role of people (those around us)– Help you to become what you are capable of

being

– “I will help you succeed, but you possess your own answers.”

– Facilitator

Epistemology

• BEING IN ITSELF• BEING FOR ITSELF

BEING IN ITSELF

• Things that have a predetermined existence

• Something just is what it is• Just the way it appears to be• Fact

BEING FOR ITSELF

Live a life that is chosenRecognize mortalityAwareness = pain & conflict

joy & happinessNeed to become what we are capable of becomingProcess of giving life meaning

MODE 1Scientific mode

BEING IN ITSELF

Example: Flower has parts

MODE IIPhenomenologyBEING FOR ITSELFAssign meaning:

Example: Flower is beautiful, reminds me…

This is the feeling tone

Relationship• “I” -- Object

– BEING IN ITSELF– Objectify, fact

• “I” -- Subject– BEING FOR ITSELF– I’m OK, You’re OK

• “Hell is when other people try to objectify me instead of subjectify me.”

- Sartre

Truth• How do we learn knowledge?• How do we know what we know?

• Knowledge must be subjectified• Knowledge created from our own meaning• We must:

– Help people find meaning – subjectify– Give freedom & choice

Existential Nothingness• Existence• Non-existence• Coping with existence and non-existence

at the same time– Increases sensitivity– Height of creativity– Open to everything in nothingness

LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF ITOF IT

• Bury your head• Give away your choicesOR• Face reality• Become what you can become

Do everything you can today because there may not be tomorrow.

AxiologyEthics

Decide options & consequencesNO GUILT Battered & Real life “knocks”Coping mechanismsToughen upNever talk badly about yourself

EthicsValues

– No absolutes– Freedom of choice– Existential Moment

• Values based on you• Consequences• Can’t rely on anyone but ourselves

– You have to think of the consequences of your choices

EthicsReligion

– Strong camp believe in Supreme Being

– “as if” – Live life as if there is a Supreme Being

– Individual and personal God– Can’t force anyone else to

believe, but I can choose to believe

Aesthetics• Self-expression• Individually create• Individually assign value• “Art for art sake”

– intended for the artist– Meaning belongs to me Reality

(Watercolor)

Choice and CommitmentChoice and Commitment• Humans have freedom to choose.• Each individual makes choices that create his

or her own nature.• Because we choose, we must accept risk and

responsibility for wherever our commitments take us.

• “A human being is absolutely free and absolutely responsible. Anguish is the result.” –Jean-Paul Sartre

MAN RAY

Les Larmes (Tears)

Dread and AnxietyDread and Anxiety

Dread and AnxietyDread and Anxiety• Dread is a feeling of general

apprehension. Kierkegaard interpreted it as God’s way of calling each individual to make a commitment to a personally valid way of life.

• Anxiety stems from our understanding and recognition of the total freedom of choice that confronts us every moment, and the individual’s confrontation with nothingness.

EDVARD MUNCH

Night in Saint Cloud (1890)

NothingnessNothingness and Death and Death

• Death hangs over all of us. Our awareness of it can bring freedom or anguish.

• I am my own existence. Nothing structures my world.

• “Nothingness is our inherent lack of self. We are in constant pursuit of a self. Nothingness is the creative well-spring from which all human possibilities can be realized.” –Jean-Paul Sartre

Nothingness and DeathNothingness and Death

EDGAR DEGAS

“L’absinthe” (1876)

Alienation or Alienation or EstrangementEstrangement

• From all other humans

• From human institutions

• From the past• From the future• We only exist right now,

right here.

Edward Hopper “New York Movie” (1939)

Edward Hopper “New York Movie” (1939)

Human SubjectivityHuman Subjectivity

“I will be what I choose to be.”It is impossible to transcend

human subjectivity.“There are no true connections

between people.”My emotions are yet another

choice I make. I am responsible for them.

Existentialism• Choice & freedom• Accept Responsibility• Consequences are important• No guilt• You have to make the best of life• Therapy is good to learn about yourself• Nothingness• Anxiety• Not judgmental

All existentialists are concerned with the study of being or ontology.

TO REVIEW: An existentialist believes that a person’s life is nothing but the sum of the life he has shaped for himself. At every moment it is always his own free will choosing how to act. He is responsible for his actions, which limit future actions. Thus, he must create a morality in the absence of any known predetermined absolute values. God does not figure into the equation, because even if God does exist, He does not reveal to men the meaning of their lives. Honesty with oneself is the most important value. Every decision must be weighed in light of all the consequences of that action.

Life is absurd, but we engage it!

GEORGIA O’KEEFFESky Above White Clouds I (1962)

Human existence cannot be captured by reason or objectivity –– it must include passion, emotion and the subjective.

Each of us is responsible for everything and to every human being.

–Simone de Beauvoir

Some Famous Some Famous ExistentialistsExistentialists

• Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

• Albert Camus (1913-1960)

“A woman is not born…she is created.”de Beauvoir’s most famous text is The Second Sex (1949), which some claim is the basis for current gender studies.

Nietzsche and Nihilism“Every belief, every considering something-true is necessarily false because there is simply no true world. Nihilism is…not only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually puts one’s shoulder to the plow; one destroys. For some time now our whole European culture has been moving as toward a catastrophe, with a tortured tension that is growing from decade to decade: restlessly, violently, headlong, like a river that wants to reach the end… .” (Will to Power)

Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Macbeth

Albert Camus dissociated himself from the existentialists but acknowledged man’s lonely condition in the universe. His “man of the absurd” (or absurd hero) rejects despair and commits himself to the anguish and responsibility of living as best he can.

Basically, man creates himself through the choices he makes. There are no guides for these choices, but he has to make them anyway, which renders life absurd.

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

“It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had to have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning.”