EXISTENTIALISM

What is Existentialism?
Philosophical and literary movement elements date back to Socrates and the Bible peak was 19th and 20th centuries developed in reaction to civil unrest especially WWII

MAJOR EXISTENTIALIST THEMES

Moral Individualism Choice & Commitment Dread & Anxiety

MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM

MORAL INDIVIDUALISM
A. Choose your own way w/o the help of universal/objective standards B. personal experience and acting on ones own convictions lead to the truth

MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM Cont.

C. The most important ques. in life are not accessible to reason or science

***CHOICE & COMMITMENT***

A. Choices create our essence or nature

B. choice is central to human existence C. even choosing not to choose is a choice D. death is the ultimate choice E. with choice/free will comes responsibility F. decisions are not right or wrong only better or worse: choose then ACT

MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM Cont.

G. The number of people affected by the decision determines its importance H. part of the responsibility of choice is the acceptance of the consequences that accompany the choice

MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM Cont.

DREAD & ANXIETY

A. dread= a feeling of apprehension

MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM Cont.

B. total freedom of choice leads to anguish or dread. Ex. In The Guest Daru is stressed about the necessity of making a decision about the Arabs future. C. Human life is full of ambiguity

Death the meaning of human existence the place of God in human existence the meaning of value interpersonal relationship place of self-reflective conscious knowledge of ones self in existing

EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS

A POINT OF CLARIFICATION ON EXISTENTIALISM

Existentialists do not recognize any human or immortal authority BUT most Existentialists ARE NOT atheists. Many of them are religious, but God gave humanity free will and therefore does not play an active role in our decision making.

MAJOR FIGURES
Soren Kierkeggard Jean Paul Sartre existence precedes essence

founder of modern Existentialism

Friedrich Martin Heidegger Nietzsche Anxiety leads to individuals The individual confrontation with must decide nothingness & which impossibility of situations count finding ultimate justification for the as moral choices he/she situations. makes.

MAJOR FIGURES CONT.

MAJOR FIGURES CONT.

Franz Kafka Fyodor Austrian Jewish Dostoyevsky writer Russian emphasis on novelist individuals isolation & mans greatest existentialist confrontation with literary figure elusive, menacing bureaucracies

MAJOR FIGURES CONT.

Albert Camus Theatre of the Absurd Algerian writer Playwrights: major themes: Eugene Ionesco & absurdity and Samuel Beckett futility of life & Major themes: the indifference absurdity & of the universe futility of
existence

KEY EXISTENTIAL QUOTES

we are condemned to be free. ~Sartre life is absurd. ~Camus Human beings require a rational basis for their existence, but unable to find one, human life is a futile passion. ~Sartre

KEY EXISTENTIAL QUOTES

Heidegger argued that humanity finds itself in an incomprehensible, indifferent world. Human beings can never hope to understand why they are here; instead, each individual must choose a goal and follow it with passionate conviction, aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate meaninglessness of ones life.

KEY EXISTENTIAL QUOTES

We must love life more than the meaning of it. ~Dostoyevsky Sartre reminds us that actions and statements, most choices, are made within the view of others--and others will determine if we are liars or being authentic.

KEY EXISTENTIALIST QUOTES

If you are born cowards, you can be quite content, you can do nothing about it and you can be cowards all your life whatever you do; and if you are born heroes you can again be quite content; you will be heroes all your life, eating and drinking heroically. Whereas the existentialist says that the coward makes himself cowardly, the hero makes himself heroic; and that there is the possibility for the coward to give up cowardice and for the hero to stop being heroic. ~Sartre

Accept/Embrace the meaninglessness of existence/ Stop trying to find meaning b/c there isnt any Make better choices and act on them Understand that decision-making is a stressful, solitary act, even when in a group, but it is necessary to existence societal structures are the result of men & women attempting to limit their choices

How to be Happy in an Existentialist world!