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Existentialism
Dec. 2nd, 2003 02:13 pmMy History of European Thought (1800-2000) teacher has outlined Existentialism for us, and since I've been trying to grok it well enough to explain it and failing, below are my notes for the brief outline he gave.
The surprising thing is that I have not explicitly read existentialist works before, but the ideas have nevertheless become a consideration in my own philosophy. Particularly, I believe in human freedom as an essential quality, and that it is a burden we must bear, but I color it differently - less depressively - I believe that once we were not free, that we needed guidance, and that now we are considered mature enough to make our own way, make our own mistakes.
Any case, the below is Doc Steenson's notes.
There's a lot else to it, but it's very interesting to look around and see existentialist philosophy being presented. The Matrix makes a good example of existential fiction...:-)
1. Existence precedes essence (life has no meaning but what we give it, for man has no essence but what he makes)
2. Humans are subjects not objects...(we are not to be objectified. Ever. cannot be. we act.)
3. Humans are free because of this. Whatever slavery occurs is, at some level, our choice. (sounds cold, but slaves can run and die instead of being enslaved, but what a miserable choice that is)
4. Choices our our domain. We are what we choose.
5. We are responsible for our choices and the outcome thereof.
6. Past rarely determines action. (we'd like to believe this. he'd have us believe that we rewrite the past to fit our choices.)
7. Our acts define us.
8. We continually redefine ourselves.
9. We make ourselves in the first place. (this is supposed to follow from the previous. pretty loose in my opine.)
10. We identify our reality by our ends - our goals. (Hrm. This one I've bought for a long time, unconsciously - always believing we're striving towards something. Wonder what led me to that conclusion.)
11. We cannot be anything less than subjective (objectivity is a farce, an approximation, or a mockery.)
12. The human condition resides in this world (every part of us is of this world - almost purely monist, so hard to believe in God and be existentialist.)
13. We are condemned to be free. (hey, freedom isn't all roses. sacrificing choice is still a choice. we cannot slough responsibility to anyone else)
14. We are abandoned in the world - we are here alone, by ourselves, without help from any other.
15. It is in anguish that we become conscious of our freedom.
The surprising thing is that I have not explicitly read existentialist works before, but the ideas have nevertheless become a consideration in my own philosophy. Particularly, I believe in human freedom as an essential quality, and that it is a burden we must bear, but I color it differently - less depressively - I believe that once we were not free, that we needed guidance, and that now we are considered mature enough to make our own way, make our own mistakes.
Any case, the below is Doc Steenson's notes.
There's a lot else to it, but it's very interesting to look around and see existentialist philosophy being presented. The Matrix makes a good example of existential fiction...:-)
1. Existence precedes essence (life has no meaning but what we give it, for man has no essence but what he makes)
2. Humans are subjects not objects...(we are not to be objectified. Ever. cannot be. we act.)
3. Humans are free because of this. Whatever slavery occurs is, at some level, our choice. (sounds cold, but slaves can run and die instead of being enslaved, but what a miserable choice that is)
4. Choices our our domain. We are what we choose.
5. We are responsible for our choices and the outcome thereof.
6. Past rarely determines action. (we'd like to believe this. he'd have us believe that we rewrite the past to fit our choices.)
7. Our acts define us.
8. We continually redefine ourselves.
9. We make ourselves in the first place. (this is supposed to follow from the previous. pretty loose in my opine.)
10. We identify our reality by our ends - our goals. (Hrm. This one I've bought for a long time, unconsciously - always believing we're striving towards something. Wonder what led me to that conclusion.)
11. We cannot be anything less than subjective (objectivity is a farce, an approximation, or a mockery.)
12. The human condition resides in this world (every part of us is of this world - almost purely monist, so hard to believe in God and be existentialist.)
13. We are condemned to be free. (hey, freedom isn't all roses. sacrificing choice is still a choice. we cannot slough responsibility to anyone else)
14. We are abandoned in the world - we are here alone, by ourselves, without help from any other.
15. It is in anguish that we become conscious of our freedom.
