02 existentialism
TRANSCRIPT
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ANDREW WYETHChristina’s World (1948)
A complex philosophy emphasizing the absurdity of reality and the human
responsibility to make choices and accept
consequences!
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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…
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Introductory Question:
• What do you know with absolute certainty?
(Perhaps the key question with which to begin any philosophical investigation)
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“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.”
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Cogito ergo sum.
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Cogito ergo sum.
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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).
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This means that Man is 1.Identified by his actions2.That He is responsible for his actions
EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE
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Existentialism is the philosophy that holds your existence as your pre-eminent truth and
reality.
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Existentialism in Main Themes:
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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.
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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.
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Truth is SubjectiveTruth is Subjective
This means that what is true for one person might not be true for
another.
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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….
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Such as….
• An Interactive God• Fate• Astrology• Murphy’s Law (& other laws)• Grandmother’s axioms• Human nature• Pre-destination• Freud’s sub-conscious mind
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Epistemology
• BEING IN ITSELF• BEING FOR ITSELF
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BEING IN ITSELF
• Things that have a predetermined existence
• Something just is what it is• Just the way it appears to be• Fact
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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
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MODE 1Scientific mode
BEING IN ITSELF
Example: Flower has parts
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MODE IIPhenomenologyBEING FOR ITSELFAssign meaning:
Example: Flower is beautiful, reminds me…
This is the feeling tone
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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AxiologyEthics
Decide options & consequencesNO GUILT Battered & Real life “knocks”Coping mechanismsToughen upNever talk badly about yourself
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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
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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
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Aesthetics• Self-expression• Individually create• Individually assign value• “Art for art sake”
– intended for the artist– Meaning belongs to me Reality
(Watercolor)
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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
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MAN RAY
Les Larmes (Tears)
Dread and AnxietyDread and Anxiety
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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.
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EDVARD MUNCH
Night in Saint Cloud (1890)
NothingnessNothingness and Death and Death
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• 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
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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.
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Edward Hopper “New York Movie” (1939)
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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.
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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
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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!
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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“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.”