Central Europe in mid1800s through 1918

Context

Søren Kierkegaard

18-13-1855Danish Father of

Existentialism

Kierkegaard as a Theologian

Christian ethicsObjectivity and subjectivity in

ChristianityIndividual’s subjective

relationship with religionAgainst political weaponization

of religion

Kierkegaard as a Psychologist

Focused on emotional responses to life choices

Kierkegaard as a Philosopher

Focused on developing antitheses to Idealist philosophies

So what’s the Idealist way of thinking?

Idealism

Idealism idea Greek idein “to see”

Idealists represent the world as it should be

Reality is incorporeal

Idealists believe that reality – or how we perceive and understand reality – is mentally constructed and essentially immaterial.

Idealism and Kant

Kant defined Idealism as “the assertion that we can never be certain whether all of our punitive outer experience is not mere imagining.”

Kant especially focused on whether reality was purely mental.

Is this all just in our heads?

You Idealists are all crazy!

Criticisms

Criticized for his support of subjective interpretations of religious doctrine

Criticized for having faith in the existence of God

It is suggested that the move between reason and faith is violent and unnatural

Friedrich Nietzsche

Interested in people’s quiet struggle with the apparent meaninglessness of life and the use of diversion to escape from boredom.

Explored the role of making free choices, and how choices may change the nature and identity of the person

German professor

KIERKEGAARD

Christian People should live

according to their thinking

Known to psychoanalyze characters in the Bible

NIETZSCHE

Atheist “Life-affirming” Individuals invent

their own values and create the very terms they excel under

Karl Marx

Alienation – Social classes alienates an individual from herself

As society places control on one’s life, that person quickly loses her humanity

Alienation – worker from worker (produce of her own labour)

Alienation – worker from working (production) Alienation from herself as a producer (species) Alientation – worker from worker

National Identity

Austro-Hungarian Empire

Divide between the Czechs and Germans

Empire dissolved after WWI.

Franz Kafka

1883 – 1924 Born in Prague Wrote in German Middle class Eldest of 6 siblings German educated in

Prague Spoke Czech-accented

German Lived with parents until

aged 31 Social anxiety

Kafka and Religion Early years:

Raised Jewish Fascinated with spiritual traditions of Jewish faith Felt disconnected from the Jewish faith because his

family wasn’t particularly devout.

Went through a phase of Atheism

Before becoming devout – but this devotion was more to the traditions, stories and customs than to the spiritual nature of Judaism

Essentially he was an agnostic with academic interests in Jewish traditions and folktales.

Daddy Issues

Hermann Kafka Harsh Overbearing Selfish Domineering Inattentive Businessman –

traveling salesman and then in a shop

Julie Kafka Came from an

affluent family Better educated

than Hermann Helped run family

business

Daddy Issues

The Lock Out Punishment

Kafka describes how this even haunted him years later in his journals, writing: “Even years afterwards I suffered from the tormenting fancy that the huge man, my father, the ultimate authority, would come almost for no reason at all and take me out of bed in the night and carry me out.”

Pleasing Father? Or pleasing himself?

Chemistry

Law

More time at university

University

Friends with philosophers and writers

Max Brod

Described as quiet but profound

Philosophies Kafka discussed

Friendship with philosophy major, Felix Weltsch brought him into contact with the philosophies of Christian von Ehrenfels

Which in turn brought him into further contact with the writing of Aristotle

e.g. “In the case of all things that have several parts and in which the whole is not like a heap, but is a particular something besides the parts, there must be some such uniting factor”

Kafka’s Self-Image

Although physically fit – a swimmer, hiker, and talented horseman – Kafka saw himself as thin, awkward, and cowardly.

In her journals, Milena Jesenká-Pollak wrote that Kafka seemed repulsed by his own body, and to a lesser extent, repulsed by her body.

Cursed to Write

Similar to Plath – the words demanded to be written

Kafka knew he was a gifted writer, a fact he recorded in his diaries.

He felt cursed by his gift, hating the need to write and the desire for public accolades.

Kafka spent his life in perpetual depression and blamed alternately his father and himself

An insurance man

Kept office hours – which disrupted writing time

Hermann didn’t approve of the job

Prager Asbstweke Hermann & Co. Working for the family breeds contempt

Individualism

Kafka does not theorize a utopian future for humanity. At best, Kafka has no philosophical or political motives and merely wants to reflect what he has seen of human nature. At worst, Kafka believes humanity is descending into an abyss of alienation in which individuals can rely on no external truths or communal obligations. The end result is an extreme version of alienation that is a forced, not chosen, individualism.

Kafkaesque

Oppression of bureaucracy Depression:

senselessness, disorientation, helplessness

Surrealism Struggling with identity Labyrinthine

Common in dystopian, totalitarian novels

Existentialism

The existential attitude begins with a disoriented individual facing a confused world he cannot accept.

However, the individual eventually accepts and even embraces the absurdity of life.

Inherent

Adjective

Existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute

Synonyms – intrinsic, innate, built-in, inborn, ingrained, deep-rooted

Absurdism

Human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life

Human inability to find any inherent value and meaning in life.

The efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning will ultimately fail because the overwhelming existence of information and vast realm of the unknown make certainty impossible; therefore, the efforts to find inherent meaning are absurd.