Grendel and Philosophy

What is Philosophy?

• The term means “love of wisdom.”

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• The field of study in which people seek to understand the fundamental truths about themselves and the world in which we live. Philosophy also seeks to understand and define the nature of reality. What is reality?

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Philosophical Concepts

• There are a number of philosophical concepts in the novel, so it is important to be familiar with these ideas as you read. It is also important to be familiar with the famous philosophers associated with these concepts.

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• Determinism
• Solipsism
• Skepticism – Pyrro
• Existentialism – Soren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sarte
• Nihilism - Friedrich Nietzsche
• Empiricism-Aristotle

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Determinism

• The doctrine that all events, including human action, are caused by things that happened before them, and that people have no real ability to make choices or control what happens.

Determinism

• Everything that happens is the only possible thing that could happen.
• Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.

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Solipsism

• The philosophical idea that only one’s mind is sure to exist.
• Knowledge of anything outside one’s mind is unsure.
• The external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind.

Skepticism

• Comes from an ancient Greek verb that meant “to inquire.” A philosophical doctrine that states absolute knowledge is impossible.

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• In other words, humans do not have the ability to understand the true nature of the universe, God, and reality.

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• How do we really know that what we are experiencing in this room right now is reality? What if it is only a dream?

Skepticism

• Pyrro (360 – 270 B.C.) A Greek philosopher who is credited as being the first skeptic philosopher.

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• Believed that people should be quick to question things and slow to believe.

Existentialism

• A philosophical approach to understanding human existence.
• Based on the assumption that individuals are free and responsible for their own choices and actions.

Existentialism

• We are not victims of circumstances because we are what we have chosen to be.
• The individual – not society or religion – is responsible for giving meaning to life.

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Existentialism

• Existence precedes essence – a central claim of existentialism that there is no such thing as human nature, but that people CHOOSE who they become.

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• So by this logic, being born or coming into being (existence) comes BEFORE who we develop into as people ( our essence).

Soren Kierkegaard 1813-1855

• Danish philosopher considered the first existentialist philosopher.

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• Was religious himself, but declared faith in God to be absurd, since it is impossible to know God, or to understand His purpose.

Jean Paul Sarte 1905-1980

• French existentialist philosopher.
• Awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, but refused it, saying that he always “declined official honors.”

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Existentialism: The Absurd Quest for Purpose

• Sarte believed in the existentialist concept of The Absurd.
• This view states that humanity must live in a world that is and forever will be hostile or indifferent to them. The universe will never truly care for humanity the way we seem to want it to.
• As a result, humans are on a constant quest for purpose.

Existentialism: The Absurd Cont.

• It’s common to assume that everything must have a purpose, a higher reason for existing.
• However, if one thing has a higher purpose, what is the reason for that purpose?
• This evokes the ultimate question: If human kind was created by God, who or what created God?

Nihilism

• Philosophical movement which suggests that life has no meaning, purpose, or value.
• Morality does not inherently exist, but is created by humans.

Friedrich Nietzche 1844-1900

• Famous German philosopher and essentially a nihilist.
• Worked as a professor at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
• Suffered for years from syphilis and or a brain tumor which is what caused his death.

God is Dead

• Nietzsche wrote this now famous phrase.
• Nietzsche did not mean that God was literary dead or did not exist.
• He criticized the western world’s over reliance on religion as a moral compass and source of meaning.

God is Dead

• The western world had depended on the rule of God for thousands of years — it gave order to society and meaning to life. Without it, Nietzsche writes, society will move into an age of nihilism.

Empiricism

• A philosophical theory that the origin of all knowledge is sense experience (what you can touch, see, taste, smell, and hear).
• It emphasizes the role of experience and evidence in the formation of ideas.

Empiricism

• The only knowledge that humans can have is based on experience.
• This method is used in the sciences.
• All theories must be tested against observations of the natural world.

Aristotle

• Credited as being the first empiricist.
• Believed that what the senses reported was the ultimate test of reality.