Introducing Existentialism

1
Introducing Existentialism

• AP Literature
• Wade Hampton High School
• February 2008

2
A 20th Century Philosophy?

• Usually considered a 20th Century philosophy, but
  has roots stretching back before 1900.
• Although the terms French and atheist are
  often used in conjunction with it, existentialism
  is not strictly either.
• Many Existentialists do not accept an organized
  structure of belief.

3
A Brief Description

• Existentialists emphasize human freedom and the
  individuals responsibility to accept
  consequences of choices.
• To the existentialist, reality and life are
  absurd there is no general pattern of meaning,
  no harmony. People need to create meaning in the
  face of chaos.

4
Camus

• His works reflect existential concerns
• Involves questions about belief and religion
• His own death would be labeled absurd by the
  author.

5
Sarte and Existential Thought

• The most important thing there for Sartre is not
  so much the distinction between essence and
  existence but the absence of God. For
  Existentialists like Sartre, the absence of God
  has a much larger significance than the
  metaphysics of creation  Without God there is no
  purpose, no value, and no meaning in the world.
  That is the foundational proposition for
  Existentialism. A world without purpose, value,
  or meaning is literally senseless, worthless,
  meaningless, empty, and hopeless. It is, to use a
  favorite Existentialist term, absurd.

6
Jean-Paul Sartre

• Reality the being of an existence is exactly
  what it appears, as opposed to the dualism and
  appearance.
• Morality freedom is oriented toward a practical
  goal. Man has to be considered as the beginning
  through which the good consent to the world.

7
William James1842-1910
Stated that truths were made in the course of
human experience, and were not necessarily
absolute.

• Believed that matters of morality were too
  momentous to be sustained by sensible proof,
  and that therefore morality was based on the
  heart and experience of mankind in a certain time
  or culture.

Believed that in science one could wait for the
outcome of investigation before coming to a
particular belief, but in other times one is
forced to come to a belief even if all the
relevant evidence is not in. Stated that one has
a right to believewhere a fact cannot come at
all unless a preliminary faith exists in its
coming. An example of this is in religion is
the case in which ones salvation depends on
believing in God in advance of any proof that God
exists.
8
Miguel De Unamuno

• Influenced by Rationalism and Positivism
• Most famous Work
• Del Sentimiento Tragico de la Vida
• (The Tragic Sense of Life)
• He believed in mans desire for immortality for
  himself and all aspects of life
• Although irrational, this desire makes us human
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno

9
Martin Heidegger(1889- 1976)

• Controversial philosopher of the 20th century.
• He greatly influenced Jean Paul Sartre.
• He believed individuals are in danger of being
  submerged in the world of objects, everyday
  routines, and the conventional crowd.
• His most influential work is Being and Time.

http//www.iep.utm.edu/h/heidegge.htm,
http//www.dividingline.com/private/Philosophy/Phi
losophers/Heid/heid.shtml
10
Nicolai Berdyayev

• Born in 1874 near Kiev, Ukraine Nicolai Berdyayev
  was a religious philosopher who developed strong
  revolutionary sympathies. He was known for his
  Christian existentialist or personalist views. He
  was educated at a military academy and at the
  University of Kyyiv. He was expelled from Kyyiv
  in 1898 and was imprisoned for two years.
  Although he supported the Russian Revolution, he
  eventually became critical of Marxism, perhaps
  because he idealized a Christian social system
  rather than a theoretical system.

11
Gabriel Marcel

• Dec 7, 1889 Oct 8, 1973
• Marcel was the son of an atheist, and was himself
  an atheist until his conversion to Catholicism in
  1929.
• Marcel was a French philosopher, a leading
  Christian existentialist, and the author of about
  30 plays.

12
Martin Buber

• Austrian- Israeli Hasidic Jew
• Supported a binational Zionism
• Major works/ideas
• Ich und Du (I and Thou) a mutual relationship
  between two beings can exist without a
  necessarily physical meeting explains that this
  is the only way for humans to interact with God
• Spiritual/physical encounter
• Spiritual view of existence
• Ich und Es (I and It) an opposite theory from
  Ich und Du, beings do not meet I confronts
  being, idea, etc. as an object all objects
  treated as thoughts
• Inner relationship
• Material view of existence

13
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard May 5, 1813
November 11, 1855
A prolific 19th century Danish philosopher and
theologian. Much of his work deals with religious
problems such as the nature of faith, the
institution of the Christian Church, Christian
ethics and theology, and the emotions and
feelings of individuals when faced with life
choices. His early work was written under various
pseudonyms who present their own distinctive
viewpoints in a complex dialogue. Kierkegaard
left the task of discovering the meaning of the
works to the reader, because "the task must be
made difficult, for only the difficult inspires
the noble-hearted. Kierkegaard came to be
regarded as a highly significant and influential
figure in contemporary thought.
Kierkegaard has been called a philosopher, a
theologian, the Father of Existentialism, a
literary critic, a humorist, a psychologist, and
a poet. Two of his popular ideas are
"subjectivity", and the "leap to faith,"
popularly referred to as the "leap of faith." The
leap of faith is his conception of how an
individual would believe in God, or how a person
would act in love.
Kierkegaard led a somewhat uneventful life. He
rarely left his hometown of Copenhagen, and
traveled abroad only five times four times to
Berlin and once to Sweden. His prime recreational
activities were attending the theatre, walking
the streets of Copenhagen to chat with ordinary
people, and taking brief carriage jaunts into the
surrounding countryside. He was educated at a
prestigious boys' school (Borgerdydskolen), then
attended Copenhagen University where he studied
philosophy and theology. His teachers at the
university included F.C. Sibbern, Poul Martin
Møller, and H.L. Martensen.
http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/
14
Henri BergsonFrench philosopher (1859-1941)

• Developed his philosophy in a number of books
  that he wrote.
• Studied consciousness and deep introspection.
• Influenced by Darwin, Spencer, and Mills.
• The deeper self is the seat of creative becoming
  and of free will.
• The limiting concept of matter is interpreted as
  a momentary mind, completely deprived of a memory
  that helps make possible freedom of choice.
• Turned his attention to the relation of mind to
  body.

http//nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laur
eates/1927/bergson-bio.html
15
Karl Barth May 10, 1886-December 10, 1968
He was a Swiss Reformed theologian and was one of
the most important Christian thinkers of the
Twentieth Century.
He was a pastor at one time, but rejected the
German Protestant Liberalism that he was trained
with. He committed himself to the German and
Swiss Religious Socialist Movement.
In general, Barth stands in the heritage of the
Reformation in his opposition against attempts to
closely relate theology and philosophy.
Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to
God as other teachers of religion do. He is
Himself the way."
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Barth
allenvaz.blogspot.com
16
Nietzsche

• Anti-christian beliefs backed most of his
  philosophies
• Wrote many essays and books about his beliefs
  such as Beyond Good and Evil and The Anti-Christ
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche

17
Existentialism

• -it is the idea that individuals create the
  meaning of their lives.
• -it states that the individual is responsible
  since they are free and there is an absence of a
  God.
• -1940s Jean-Paul Sarte, Albert Camus, and Simon
  de Beauvoir introduced dread, boredom,
  alienation, the absurd, freedom, commitment and
  nothingness to Existentialism

18
Atheism

• Atheism is an absence of belief in the existence
  of gods. This comes from either deliberate
  choice, or from an inherent inability to believe
  religious teachings. It is not a lack of belief
  born out of simple ignorance of religious
  teachings.
• http//www.infidels.org/library/modern/mathew/intr
  o.html
• Some atheists may know of many gods and reject
  belief in the existence of all of them. Such a
  person might be called a polyatheist. All theists
  are atheists in the sense that they deny the
  existence of all other gods except theirs, but
  they don't consider themselves atheists. Most
  people today who consider themselves atheists
  probably mean that they do not believe in the
  existence of the local god.
• http//skepdic.com/atheism.html
• Some famous atheist includes Abraham Lincoln,
  Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Charles
  Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Marilyn Manson, and
  many others.
• http//www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm

19
Existentialism

• Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche are
  philosophers that are considered founders to the
  existentialist movement, though neither used the
  term. They referred to existentialism a century
  ahead of its time.  
• A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and
  isolation of the individual experience in a
  hostile or indifferent universe, regards human
  existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom
  of choice and responsibility for the consequences
  of one's acts.
• Existentialism became identified with a cultural
  movement that flourished in Europe in the 1940s
  and 1950.

20
Pragmatism
Definition a practical approach to problems and
affairs Heavily influenced by Darwinian
thinking Consider practical consequences and
real effects to be vital components of meaning
and truth.