Existentialism Notes

What is existentialism?

· Apparently, a very difficult term to define, Wikipedia define it as "a term applied to 19th and 20th century philosophers who shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject." So a kind of human philosophy.

Here are some characteristics that existentialist thinkers are believed to share:

· An obsession with how to live one’s life, and the belief that philosophical and psychological thinking can help

· Lack of attention to social questions e.g, politics and the state.

· But a lot of attention on the questions that people should focus on in their lives, these include, what happens after death, what is the meaning of life, Relationships with god. You know, all of the really difficult questions that no one can ever answer.

· The belief that life doesn’t have any pre-determined value or meaning, but that the individual has to create this for themselves through their own experiences of life by living life, not by asking
questions.

· Existential choices and values are primarily demonstrated in acts, rather than words.

· Focused on everyday struggles in individual existence, existentialists often use literary references, rather than abstract philosophical thinking to show these everyday struggles.

· The idea of Human free will tends to be seen as obvious in existentialist writing.

HUMANS ARE NOT LIKE CHAIRS. CHAIRS ARE PURPOSE BUILT FOR SITTING ON. HUMANS ARE NOT PURPOSE BUILT FOR SITTING ON, HUMANS ARE NOT PURPOSE
BUILT FOR ANYTHING!

Human Knowledge is fallible and limited.

Jean Paul Sartre isinto ACTING, he reckons that everyone’s individual acts change something in the world.

The ripples of actions are like ripples on the sea, they go on and on and on.

For example: I publish these notes on my blog.

People read them and gain a false understanding of existentialism.

Existentialism slowly gets badly interpreted throughout the world etc. etc.

OR

I don’t publish these notes.

Somebody has to take time in studying existentialism properly

This helps to spread a more informed interpretation of existentialism etc. etc.

BOB’S YOUR UNCLE

Every act opens a Pandora’s Box, once you’ve done it, there is no undoing it. Unless you’ve done it on a computer, then you can just click undo. BUT CAN YOU UNDO THAT?

Sartre sees all of that ^^ as an ontological fact, a description of life.

Sartre was famously imprisoned by the Nazis, and remarked "I have never felt so free" He was a prisoner and nothing more, he did not have to worry about the affect that this would have on the world. He saw writing as the act of human freedom. He categoirised the world into three:

1.Things that exist for themselves

2. Human beings who exist for themselves

3. Human beings that exist for others. e.g slaves. He saw these people as, 'in bad faith'.

SO

Existentialists believe that life for humans is potentially TERRIFYING because:

1. Everything that we do is so uncertain and unplanned

2. Everything we do has such a huge impact on the world.

Basically every act, so everything ever (except a thought) is a massive responsibility. A burden.
Acts are not trivial; your acts define you as a human being.

Put in the shortest form: "Living without certainty and with personal responsibility is a nearly unbearable burden." (Bob Corbett)

German philosopher Martin Heidegger focused on the structures of being and existence. He believed that life was all about making your own decisions. He claimed that life for a social being was inauthentic, as their decisions could easily be shaped by others. He believed that a person's past was full of guilt and regret, a persons present was full of fear and dread for the future and that the future remained unknown. He believed that we should live for the moment, stop feeling guilty about the past, and remain indifferent about the future, so that it wouldn't cloyud or present decisions. He believed that we should stop wasting time thinking about life and just live it.