• Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views




    Results 1 to 16 of 16

    Thread: Existentialism

    1. #1
      Life is what I make it will.i.am's Avatar
      Join Date
      Nov 2003
      Gender
      Location
      Minnesota
      Posts
      826
      Likes
      0

      Existentialism

      "Existentialism is a doctrine that renders human life possible." Jean Paul Sartre: Existentialism is a Humanism

      "Existentialism is nothing else but an attempt to draw the full conclusions from a consistently atheistic position." Sartre

      Could any of you please explain existentialism to me? I've been learning about it in my philosophy class but I just don't quite get it yet. Something to deal with the analysis of individual existence and why you are who you are and what makes you that. How you define your own existence, what are the beginnings and ends of existence and how are they determined.

      If someone would like to enlighten me on this, it would be greatly appreciate.

      Thanks,
      Will

    2. #2
      moderator emeritus jacobo's Avatar
      Join Date
      Dec 2003
      Gender
      Location
      little mexico
      Posts
      2,683
      Likes
      2
      yea i want to hear this too.
      clear eyes. strong hands.

    3. #3
      Member phantasy's Avatar
      Join Date
      Nov 2003
      Location
      The Moon
      Posts
      178
      Likes
      1
      If you don't understand something, research it. Easiest way to understand something complex without having someone write you their own essay about it.
      My new friend: Lucy D. Tea

    4. #4
      Member Sesquipedalian Dreams's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jan 2004
      Gender
      Location
      Philly
      Posts
      366
      Likes
      0
      Ok i took an existentialism class last year. My answer would be better then but ill give it a shot.

      The key term is "existence precedes essence". I forget who coined this term but it basically means that your individual existence, enables you to be who you are. There is not an essence of things before there is their actual existence. Being itself is more important than the theory of being. Sartre, a french existentialist, denies that man has a nature. He thinks rather that man is tossed into the world and is what he makes it, and is what he makes himself.

      A key theme in existentialism is FREE WILL. You become your essence by making choices and taking responsibility for your actions, no matter the consequences. Determinism is a cop out for those who are not willing to accept their actions and shaping who they are, what the world is. Everything you do matters.

      Despair is another theme, it is related to responsibility. Sartre says "man is condemned to being free", meaning that we can never sit back and let life happen to us. We are perhaps constantly in despair because we never know if we are making the right decisions, but we still must be brave and make the decisions as best we can.

      Nietzsche seemes to have a bleak look on life. He declared that life is terrible and tragic, and that we live in a meaningless world. Those who can grasp this, and not be defeated by the struggles of life, is said to have the Will to Power, one who lives deliberately and consciously.

      Nietzsche, Sartre, De Beauvoir, Buber, Heidegger are famous existentialists.

      Sartre and De Beauvoir are perhaps the easiest to read and understand. but Nietzsche is my favorite.

      I wish i could remember more and explain it well, but this is a pretty good primer.
      There's good and evil in each individual fire
      identifies needs and feeds our desires
      as long as we keep our spirit inspired
      she can bite her bottom lip all she wants

    5. #5
      Member
      Join Date
      Jan 2004
      Location
      Isn't that why there's a flag?
      Posts
      210
      Likes
      0
      Originally posted by Sesquipedalian Dreams
      Nietzsche seemes to have a bleak look on life. He declared that life is terrible and tragic, and that we live in a meaningless world. Those who can grasp this, and not be defeated by the struggles of life, is said to have the Will to Power, one who lives deliberately and consciously.

      Nietzsche, the closet Nihilist.

      Nihilists realize that all life is pointless, yet that this is all we have so we must make the most out of it. A.K.A. the Will To Power.

    6. #6
      Member Lucid83's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jan 2004
      Location
      a
      Posts
      567
      Likes
      4
      If you are curious

      I read Kafka's The Metamorphosis and The Trial and I also read Jean Paul Sartre's No Exit in 10th grade. I wrote a paper also dealing with both authors and Existentialism.

      Avatar and Signature Created by Bornslip

    7. #7
      The Anti-Member spockman's Avatar
      Join Date
      Aug 2008
      Gender
      Location
      Colorado
      Posts
      2,500
      Likes
      134
      The key term is "existence precedes essence". I forget who coined this term but it basically means that your individual existence, enables you to be who you are.
      I believe it was Kierkegard. At any rate, It would say that higher levels conciousness are gained and achieved through being who you are and introspection, it isn't inherent.
      Paul is Dead




    8. #8
      D.V. Editor-in-Chief Original Poster's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jun 2006
      LD Count
      Lucid Now
      Gender
      Location
      3D
      Posts
      8,263
      Likes
      4140
      DJ Entries
      11
      I think the myth of sisyphus by albert camus does a pretty god job explaining existentialism.

      We're all like sisyphus, rolling boulders up a hill for eternity. Even if we get near the top, we collpse on our own weight and it goes tumbling. Sisyiphus served this position of endless taxation because he ignored some god's orders and chose to live a life of freedom and bliss but he got captured and sentenced to an eternity of work.

      We're in world where the work never ends, so yeah it's pointless because there's no point to make, no conclusion to reach, and nothing we ultimately gain from being here.

      I've found recently I've become a lot like the character from the stranger

      Everything works out in the end, sometimes even badly.


    9. #9
      Xei
      UnitedKingdom Xei is offline
      Banned
      Join Date
      Aug 2005
      Posts
      9,984
      Likes
      3084
      Existentialism has a variety of meanings, I think.

      But what I understand it to mean is this:

      The universe is mute and uncaring; there is no God and reality is not conscious of human struggles. In other words, there is no inherent 'meaning' in the universe; no real moral standards, no purpose, nothing. The aforementioed is really Nihilism, but what Existentialism adds is that humans must therefore make their own meanings in the universe. Give your life a meaning and set your own morals, and then live your life to the full according to that collection of meanings.

      In this sense I suppose I would really consider myself an Existentialist. I often feel very alone in this reality, but I have personally given myself a purpose to achieve, and as a result I am content.

      Edit: Fucking hell, spockman.

    10. #10
      D.V. Editor-in-Chief Original Poster's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jun 2006
      LD Count
      Lucid Now
      Gender
      Location
      3D
      Posts
      8,263
      Likes
      4140
      DJ Entries
      11
      Existentialism doesn't state that the world is dead and uncaring, it just seems that way based on people's reactions. The universe could very weel be alive with a mind and heaven and hell and the whole shibang, but it doesn't matter. What you in front of you is existence, everything else is trash.

      Everything works out in the end, sometimes even badly.


    11. #11
      Xei
      UnitedKingdom Xei is offline
      Banned
      Join Date
      Aug 2005
      Posts
      9,984
      Likes
      3084
      Existentialism as I understand it is almost Nihilism. A meaningless universe is a vital aspect of it.

    12. #12
      D.V. Editor-in-Chief Original Poster's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jun 2006
      LD Count
      Lucid Now
      Gender
      Location
      3D
      Posts
      8,263
      Likes
      4140
      DJ Entries
      11
      They deal with completely different areas of esoteric analysis.

      Everything works out in the end, sometimes even badly.


    13. #13
      Banned
      Join Date
      Jun 2008
      Gender
      Location
      SLC, UT
      Posts
      834
      Likes
      1

      Existentialism is this:

      You haven't lived until you have thought about death all the time

    14. #14
      Xei
      UnitedKingdom Xei is offline
      Banned
      Join Date
      Aug 2005
      Posts
      9,984
      Likes
      3084
      I don't know what you mean by 'esoteric analysis'...

    15. #15
      D.V. Editor-in-Chief Original Poster's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jun 2006
      LD Count
      Lucid Now
      Gender
      Location
      3D
      Posts
      8,263
      Likes
      4140
      DJ Entries
      11
      I mean philosophies dealing with the concept of the afterlife, the meaning of life, etc...

      While Nihilism and Existentialism both arrived at the thought form that there is no objective value in rality, nihilism focused on the concept of morality and existentialism was talking about consciousness itself, arguing life is your own point of view.

      I would say both views reflect different oulooks on reality. If I asked you, "Is there an objective good?" a person conditioned by religion would say yes. A deprogrammed person would probably evaluate the implications of the question and reply "No, but there are important values inplace by societ and evolution..."

      But it all depends on how far your deprogramming goes. I would say the whole idea is to analyze concepts and values that are supposedly "intrinsic" and see if they're really necessary in order to imagine a logical concept of existence. While I think nihilism states no objective values are intrinsic to existence, existentialism thinks more about conciousness itself and what it is "to be." For existentialism, concepts to imagine the universe are unnecessary. You're born, you live, you die. An existentialist would say don't get caught up in whether the universe is finite or not, in whether we have essense or not. The answer is there is no answer.

      Everything works out in the end, sometimes even badly.


    16. #16
      The Anti-Member spockman's Avatar
      Join Date
      Aug 2008
      Gender
      Location
      Colorado
      Posts
      2,500
      Likes
      134
      There are sub-sects of Existentailism that are theistic, actually. MAny of it's founders, actually. Kierkegard, for example.
      Paul is Dead




    Bookmarks

    Posting Permissions

    • You may not post new threads
    • You may not post replies
    • You may not post attachments
    • You may not edit your posts
    •