Existentialism

Is There Meaning in Life?

Existentialism Definitions and Basic Ideas

• Existentialism, philosophical movement or tendency of the 19th and 20th centuries. Because of the diversity of positions associated with existentialism, a precise definition is impossible.

• One major theme: a stress on individual existence and, consequently, on subjectivity, individual freedom, and choice.

Freedom of Choice

• Each human being creates his or her own nature, is a primary theme.

• Because individuals are free to choose their own path, they must accept the risk and responsibility of their actions.

Living and Faith

• Existentialists believe in living -- and in fact fighting for life

• All too often people link a lack of faith or secular beliefs with existential ideals. Existentialism has little to do with faith or the lack thereof.

Basic Concepts

• Mankind has free will.

• Life is a series of choices, creating stress.

• Few decisions are without any negative consequences.

• Some things are irrational or absurd, without explanation.

• If one makes a decision, he or she must follow through.

• Existentialism requires constant thought, expression, and action -- the active development of one's essence. All decisions are individual, with each being responsible for his or her choices.

Limiting Freedom

• The most important decisions are those affecting the free will of other individuals, other matters are less important.

• Some may be affected negatively, their choices reduced by a decision, so decisions must promote freedom among the greatest number of beings.

• Limiting the number of options available to an individual in any situation reduces that being's freedom to express a free will.

• There is no such thing as a demand, since one can always accept death as a choice.

Søren Kierkegaard

• Danish philosopher

• reacted against this tradition, insisting that the individual's highest good is to find his or her own unique vocation.

Definitions

• There is no objective, rational basis for decisions.

• They stress the importance of individualism in deciding questions of morality and truth.

• Rational clarity is desirable wherever possible but that life's most important questions are not accessible to reason or science.

Antonin Artaud, b. Sept. 4, 1896, d. Mar. 4, 1948

• He was influenced less by literature than by myth, ritual, Oriental art, the gestures of Balinese dance, and the world of dreams. Artaud felt that the theater should give rise to numinous or religious feelings within the audience. At certain points he likened theater to a plague that attacks the audience, breaks down its resistance, and cleanses it morally and spiritually

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, b. Oct. 15, 1844, d. Aug. 25, 1900

• precursor of Existentialism

Nietzsche

• In this book he introduced his famous distinction between the Apollonian, or rational, element in human nature and the Dionysian, or passionate, element.

• When the two principles are blended, either in art or in life, humanity achieves a momentary harmony with the Primordial Mystery

Thus Spake Zarathustra

• death of God, • attacking Christianity and democracy as

moralities for the "weak herd”

• the superman, • he argued for the "natural aristocracy" of

the superman who, driven by the "will to power," celebrates life on earth rather than sanctifying it for some heavenly reward

Zarathustra

• the will to power • courage to "live dangerously" and thus

rise above the masses, developing his natural capacity for the creative use of passion

• To correct any misconceptions concerning the superman, Nietzsche published Beyond Good and Evil

Albert Camus

• Born: November 7, 1913 in Mondovi, AlgeriaDied: January 4, 1960 in an automobile accident

Albert Camus

• After winning a degree in philosophy, he worked at various jobs, ending up in journalism. In the 1930s, he ran a theatrical company, and during WWII was active in the French Resistance, editing an important underground paper, Combat.

• Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our

times".

Albert Camus

• Themes: The alienation, disillusionment and resulting nihilism that confronted man after the horrors of WWII. The absurdity of life, yet the necessity of some moral sensibility. An emergent liberal humanist morality apart from Christian and Marxist dogmas.

Albert Camus

• Style: His simple and clear style has made him a sort of Existentialist Hemingway. His simple short sentences are composed of only the essential - minimal descriptions of settings, clear evocations of psychological states - which produce a stark atmosphere and perfectly accentuates his subject matter. Though short, the sentences are not choppy. Instead, they provide a fluid rhythm that propels the reader (which is perhaps why he is still one of the best-selling authors in France today).

Camus: Major Works

• The Stranger 1946• The Plague 1948 • Myth of Sisyphus 1955 • The Fall 1957• Caligula 1958 / 1938

Jean Paul Sartreb. 1905 d. 1980

• Taught (1931-45) in Le Havre, Laon, and Paris lycées,

• Sartre fought injustice throughout his life - most notably campaigning for a free Algeria.

• He was awarded but refused 1964 Nobel prize for literature.

Sartre’s Philosophy

Existence (that a thing is) precedes essence (what a thing is)

Three types of being; – 1. L'être-en-soi (Being-in-itself)

– 2. L'être-pour-soi (Being-for-itself)

– 3. L'être-pour-autrui (Being-for-others)

• Existence (L'êter-pour-soi) is a dynamic process of becoming.

• Being (L'être-en-soi) is a static state. Existence is the type of being had by

humans only Nothingness (le Néant) lies at the heart of

being (l'être.)

Man desires to be god.

Sartre

• Humans are "condemned to be free" that is, without the existence of an absolute god or a pre-existing universal definition, they are free to define themselves through their actions and choices, (existence precedes essence.)

Sartre

• Freedom is not freedom from, but is, freedom for

• All things that are have being, but such being is only in-itself, it is totally self- contained and is a static state (recall Aristotle's distinction of inanimate from animate being.)

Nothingness

• Nothingness lies at the heart of being and creates a yearning for fulfillment (the fulfillment of being) nothingness is the origin of freedom and the origin of human existence. The lack of a pre-determined essence is the nothingness at the heart of being that drives the human to seek to define himself, such drive for the fulfillment of definition being the motor within existence. Man defines himself by the choices he has made. As there is no pre-determined essence every act of projection and choice is a defining and hence, essential, act. The responsibility for one's being and definition are one's responsibility. To be is to be responsible for what one is.

Sam Shepard

Stoppard