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Existential questioning…

What is the meaning of life?” Why are we here? What is our purpose? Do you believe we were created by God? Do you believe we evolved from primates? Do you believe we are reincarnations of people from the past? Do you believe in fate or destiny? How do your beliefs affect your thoughts and actions? What if you believed life had no universal or inherent meaning? How would this belief affect you?

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Existential- definition

1. the human mode of existence
2. the meaning of existence
3. the striving to find a concrete meaning in personal existence

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Existential Questions�

Why am I here?
What is the meaning of life?
What is the meaning of my existence?
Where do I fit in the world?
What is important to me in life? Freedom? Knowledge? Belongings?
How do I view myself in relation to the rest of the world?
Am I really the same person that people view me to be?

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Existentialism

Applied to the work of certain late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers.
The individual's starting point= "the existential attitude”: a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world

From left to right, top to bottom:

Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, Sartre

Simone de Beauvoir: French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

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Existentialism: Brief Definition

A chiefly 20th century philosophical movement centering on analysis of individual existence in an unknowable universe and the challenge of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/existentialism

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Existential Crisis

DanIsNotOnFire, Existential Crisis

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Existential Crisis

A moment at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose or value

Often occurs when one recognizes the “Absurd”

The Absurd: “the clash between the human tendency to seek some inherent meaning in the universe and the human impossibility of finding meaning”

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Characteristics of Existentialism

Premised on the idea that life, being, the universe do NOT contain any inherent cosmic meaning

Emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own meaning through free will.

It’s about the struggle to define meaning and identity in the face of alienation, isolation, chaos and meaninglessness

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Major Tenets of Existentialism

The Absurd
“Existence precedes essence”
Angst (and Freedom)
Alienation
Authenticity

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The Absurd

The conflict between (1) the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life and (2) the human inability to find any.
inherent: Existing in something as permanent or essential. i.e. intrinsic, innate, built-in, rooted.

Because of the world's absurdity, at any point in time, anything can happen to anyone, and a tragic event could plummet someone into direct confrontation with the Absurd

war, family death, people buying all the toilet paper during a global pandemic…

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The Absurd

How does “The Mold of the Earth” exemplify the absurd? Is the narrator having an existential crisis?

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The Absurd according to� Albert Camus

The universe is INDIFFERENT,

SILENT, COLD

Individual lives- no rational meaning or order; we are all fated to die. But, people constantly attempt to identify or create rational structure and meaning in their lives (God, Fate, Destiny, Routine, Order).
The term “absurdity” describes humanity’s futile attempt to find rational order where none exists.
Existentialism was born out of the Absurd as a way to respond to the crisis.

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CAMUS and “The Stranger”

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So…Is Life Meaningless?

No. According to Camus, one should embrace the absurd condition of humankind while continuing to explore and search for meaning ON THEIR OWN TERMS.
Taylor: “The point of any living thing’s life is, evidently, nothing but life itself.”

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Pale blue dot

To help us conceptualize the absurd and the existential dilemma of man’s purpose: Astronomer Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot

What is Sagan’s purpose with this film?
Can you be an existentialist and still live a meaningful life?

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Three Responses to the Absurd

1. Suicide (NO)
2. Put faith/hope in an outside source: God, fate, etc.. (NO)
3. Accept the absurd but then make meaning on your own terms (YES, let’s do this one)

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Myth of Sisyphus and The Absurd Hero

Happiness comes from accepting the absurd and making meaning for yourself out of your personal struggle.
YOU alone must take responsibility for your life.
Freedom and acceptance are

are key here.

Sisyphus: “My life is absurd, and

I get that. It’s all good. I’m now

above my absurd fate and can

approach this task joyfully”

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“Shades”

Is the lamplighter an absurd hero?

“Amid the murk of life, where wretched mankind gropes its way along, where some smash into obstacles, others fall into an abyss, and no one knows a secure path, where superstition-bound man is prey to mischance, misery and hate — in the dark trackless areas of life, lamplighters also bustle about. Each carries a small flame over his head, each kindles light along his path, lives unknown, labors unestimable, and then disappears like a shade...”

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“Existence precedes Essence”

Other belief systems presume that humans have a pre-ordained “essence” (nature). Existentialism rejects this idea.

To the existentialist, people are…

(1) defined only insofar as they act

(2) responsible for their actions.

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“Existence precedes Essence”

I am an individual— independently acting, responsible, conscious being (existence) NOT whatever identity or value (essence) is assigned to me. Therefore, human beings, through their own consciousness, create their own values and determine a meaning to their life

Sartre: "Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards".

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“Existence Precedes Essence”

We are ultimately responsible for how we are defined. If a man is defined as cruel, it is because he performs cruel acts. If he wants to be defined as kind, he must do kind acts.

He isn't forced to be cruel or benevolent by some predetermined essence or moral code.

Personal responsibility….opposed to genes, or human nature, bearing the blame

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Existentialism asks what is the purpose of my existence? And then places responsibility on the individual to sort it out for herself.

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Alienation

The sense of being lost in the crowd
We are defined by our Earthly toil (activities, tasks, jobs, social stations, etc)
Yet these activities are already predefined
Thus, we do school like others do school, drive like others drive, curate our Instagram feeds like others curate their Instagram feeds, etc…
Thus, we are alienated from our own selves as we seem to blend into the crowd

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Alienation in Art: Edvard Munch

The haunting terror of the total uselessness of life

Sunset (death- like our inevitable death)
The horrified crowd walks away; avoids it,
The lone figure= existentialist

Acknowledges its imminence, knows of his separation from the crowd, and understands that death is unavoidable.

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Existential Angst

Sometimes called dread, anxiety, or anguish
A negative feeling arising from the experience of realizing these things about the human condition
Sometimes a result of the heaviness of freedom and responsibility

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Classic Example of Angst

You are standing on a cliff where you not only fear falling off it, but you also dread the possibility of throwing oneself off. In this experience that "nothing is holding me back", you sense the lack of anything that predetermines you to either throw yourself off or to stand still, and you experience your own freedom.

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Existential Angst (Freedom of Choice)

If you are free to find meaning in your life and define who you are, you are also totally responsible for your choices

Can’t blame a higher power or your genes or how you were raised.

The freedom to choose and the weight of responsibility causes angst.

“Who am I?” “What is my purpose?” “What should I do with my life?” YIKES!

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Authenticity

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.” ~e.e cummings

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Authenticity is….

that attitude in which I engage in my endeavors as my own

Integrity: Choosing your values and way of being and acting in accordance with your choices NOT because that is what “one” is supposed to do, think, feel, but because you choose it.

Autonomy (freedom)

A way out of alienation

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