Existentialism is a movement of philosophy that deals primarily with questions relating to life and the meaning of existence. It sees anxiety, dread and awareness of death as the underlying principles of human existence. The most important question existentialists deal with is the meaning of life.It is not a religion, nor any form of organization, and there aren’t many ideas in which all existentialist agree on. Main questions they ask are: are why do we exist, what’s our purpose, what's our actions and choices mean? Major themes of existentialism which they seem to agree on are, existence before essence, authenticity, facticity, angst and despair.
People of existentialism(Richie)
Jean-Paul Sartre became its best known writer and spokesman for speaking about existentialism. His philosophical writings, as well as his numerous plays and novels, spread existentialist thinking all over the world, and to make Existentialism one of the schools of thought with which the reading public which was not very familiar with because not that mna ypeople were educated and knew how to read during this time.Other well-known writers that were involved with the movement of Existentialism were Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, and Miguel de Unamuno. Søren Kierkegaard, Fjodor Dostoyevsky, and Friedrich Nietzsche are usually added to the list as important 19th century forerunners. Some of the above thinkers, for example, are self-declared Christians and follow the beliefes of Existentialism.
Satre
"Existence Proceeds Essence" (Craig)
Existentialist believe heavily in human rights and freedoms. Sartre spoke of morals. He said that everyone has the freedom and choice to pick and choose their own values and morals. We pick what we feel are right because we want society and our race to thrive. Even the things in our lives that we cannot control, such as the environment in which we grow up is what we make it. For example, Two people grow up in a run down, beat up neighborhood. One kid thinks that it's impossible to get out, so he resorts to crime and drops out of school. The other kid sees it as an opportunity to become stronger and prove himself and then continues with school and becomes rich and successful. This is believed that there is no, predete
Authenticity/facticity (Richie)
The theme of authentic existence is common to many existentialist thinkers. It is often taken to mean that one has to "find oneself" and then live in accordance with this self. A common misunderstanding is that the self is something one can find if one looks hard enough, that one's true self is substantial.What is meant by authenticity is that in acting, one should act as oneself, not as One acts or as one's genes or any other essence require. The authentic act is one that is in accordance with one's freedom. Of course, as a condition of freedom is facticity, this includes one's facticity, but not to the degree that this facticity can in any way determine one's choices
The role of facticity in relation to authenticity involves letting one's actual values come into play when one makes a choice
so that one also takes responsibility for the act instead of choosing either-or without allowing the options to have different values.
Angst/Despair (Craig)
We feel angst because of our spitual fear and fear of being free. Animals are controled by intstincts, however, we have the choice to do what we want, believe what we want and it scares us. So it greatly relates with the individualism because its the individualism that causes this fear or anxiety in us. Also Angst is unavoidable, since everyone feels the pressure of being.
Despair is a state of hopelessness in which we feel when there is something we strive for, however can not achieve. For example a star basketball player who cripples his lower body would be in despair, for what he thought was his true calling was taken away from him. Despair is important because will in despair it is that our personal choice was taken away, and therefore our world broken down
Existentialism in Culture (Elliott)
Calvin and Hobbes deals with a great amount of existentialism at some points.
Edvard Munch's famous Scream, imbodies the fear of being.
The thinker ponders his existence
The existentialists
Watching home movies with my father. Something catches his attention; he says, “I’ll never forget that wallpaper, how hard it was to take down.” I say, “You notice the most peculiar things,” and he replies, “Well, that’s all life is: putting up wallpaper and taking it down again.” The thing is, he’s dead serious and because of that I’ve never had to read the existentialists – Dad’s bleak vision has taken me far beyond mere philosophy.
- Rob Couteau
Annotated Bibliography
(Craig) Crowell, Steven. "Existentialism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 23 Aug. 2004. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/>. This website gives an overall explanation of existentialism. It talks of Angst, Despair, Essence before Existence, Facictiy, along with some of the great writers of Existentialism and thier works. They include: Koren, Nichie Sartre. It also goes indepth about how existentialism has been used in culture and politics. How it realtes to humanism and Marxism. This site was very helpful. It gave me detailed information about all the themes and topics of existentialism. It took a bit of a higher leveling of thinking to read than the other articles I read. It went further in depth about politcs and where it realates to day more than any other source. It was formated very nicely, it grouped things together and started out with a background and overall knowledge. This article was very important to our wikispace. This article gave huge insight about politics in existentialism and it gave me more perspective, about all of the themes and what they mean and how they relate.
(Craig's) Stern, Alfred. Sartre, His Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, by Alfred Stern,... New York: Liberal Artspress, 1953. In this book Alfred Stern tries to explain all of Sartre's writings. He breaks it down and does his best to put it into terms more understandable by the everyday person. He also "corrects" Sartre on some points that he believes to be wrong. He goes over the main themes and ideas on Sartre's writing, which are: existence or being, existence and essence, freedoms, anxiety, authenticity and nothingness. This book was filled with information. Stern also summed up what Sartre was trying to say, without dumbing it down, which could be both good and bad, depending on how you look at it. He kept me thinking the whole way through the book and ordered it very nicely. The chapters coincided with one another very well. This book was very helpful and useful to this project. without it I wouldn't understand nearly as much. This book help me understand everything that Sartre was thinking, which is a majority of the major themes of modern existentialism. Without this book I would just be reading a bunch of dry articles that basically tell me the same thing as the last one did, and leave me not truly understanding existentialism. Works Cited
(Craig's) Branch, David. "Existentialism." Saint Anselm College. Saint Anselm College, 2006. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/sartreol.htm>. Whitehawk, Shamyn. "Existentialism." Free Hosting, Web Hosting, Domain Names and Web Design | Fortunecity. 1998. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/cushing/263/exist/existentialism.html>. Wildman, Wesley. "Existentialism." People.bu.edu --- People on the Web at Boston University. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/wphil/lectures/wphil_theme20.htm>. "'The Existentialists,' Poetry by Rob Couteau." Tygers of Wrath. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.tygersofwrath.com/exist.htm>.
Existentialism
Intro (Elliott)
Existentialism is a movement of philosophy that deals primarily with questions relating to life and the meaning of existence. It sees anxiety, dread and awareness of death as the underlying principles of human existence. The most important question existentialists deal with is the meaning of life.It is not a religion, nor any form of organization, and there aren’t many ideas in which all existentialist agree on. Main questions they ask are: are why do we exist, what’s our purpose, what's our actions and choices mean? Major themes of existentialism which they seem to agree on are, existence before essence, authenticity, facticity, angst and despair.People of existentialism(Richie)
Jean-Paul Sartre became its best known writer and spokesman for speaking about existentialism. His philosophical writings, as well as his numerous plays and novels, spread existentialist thinking all over the world, and to make Existentialism one of the schools of thought with which the reading public which was not very familiar with because not that mna ypeople were educated and knew how to read during this time.Other well-known writers that were involved with the movement of Existentialism were Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, and Miguel de Unamuno. Søren Kierkegaard, Fjodor Dostoyevsky, and Friedrich Nietzsche are usually added to the list as important 19th century forerunners. Some of the above thinkers, for example, are self-declared Christians and follow the beliefes of Existentialism."Existence Proceeds Essence" (Craig)
Existentialist believe heavily in human rights and freedoms. Sartre spoke of morals. He said that everyone has the freedom and choice to pick and choose their own values and morals. We pick what we feel are right because we want society and our race to thrive. Even the things in our lives that we cannot control, such as the environment in which we grow up is what we make it. For example, Two people grow up in a run down, beat up neighborhood. One kid thinks that it's impossible to get out, so he resorts to crime and drops out of school. The other kid sees it as an opportunity to become stronger and prove himself and then continues with school and becomes rich and successful. This is believed that there is no, predeteAuthenticity/facticity (Richie)
The theme of authentic existence is common to many existentialist thinkers. It is often taken to mean that one has to "find oneself" and then live in accordance with this self. A common misunderstanding is that the self is something one can find if one looks hard enough, that one's true self is substantial.What is meant by authenticity is that in acting, one should act as oneself, not as One acts or as one's genes or any other essence require. The authentic act is one that is in accordance with one's freedom. Of course, as a condition of freedom is facticity, this includes one's facticity, but not to the degree that this facticity can in any way determine one's choicesThe role of facticity in relation to authenticity involves letting one's actual values come into play when one makes a choice
so that one also takes responsibility for the act instead of choosing either-or without allowing the options to have different values.
Angst/Despair (Craig)
We feel angst because of our spitual fear and fear of being free. Animals are controled by intstincts, however, we have the choice to do what we want, believe what we want and it scares us. So it greatly relates with the individualism because its the individualism that causes this fear or anxiety in us. Also Angst is unavoidable, since everyone feels the pressure of being.Despair is a state of hopelessness in which we feel when there is something we strive for, however can not achieve. For example a star basketball player who cripples his lower body would be in despair, for what he thought was his true calling was taken away from him. Despair is important because will in despair it is that our personal choice was taken away, and therefore our world broken down
Existentialism in Culture (Elliott)
The existentialists
Watching home movies
with my father.
Something catches his attention;
he says, “I’ll never forget that wallpaper,
how hard it was to take down.”
I say, “You notice the most peculiar things,”
and he replies,
“Well, that’s all life is:
putting up wallpaper
and taking it down again.”
The thing is,
he’s dead serious
and because of that
I’ve never had to read
the existentialists –
Dad’s bleak vision
has taken me
far beyond
mere philosophy.
- Rob Couteau
Annotated Bibliography
(Craig)Crowell, Steven. "Existentialism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 23 Aug. 2004. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/>.
This website gives an overall explanation of existentialism. It talks of Angst, Despair, Essence before Existence, Facictiy, along with some of the great writers of Existentialism and thier works. They include: Koren, Nichie Sartre. It also goes indepth about how existentialism has been used in culture and politics. How it realtes to humanism and Marxism.
This site was very helpful. It gave me detailed information about all the themes and topics of existentialism. It took a bit of a higher leveling of thinking to read than the other articles I read. It went further in depth about politcs and where it realates to day more than any other source. It was formated very nicely, it grouped things together and started out with a background and overall knowledge.
This article was very important to our wikispace. This article gave huge insight about politics in existentialism and it gave me more perspective, about all of the themes and what they mean and how they relate.
(Craig's)
Stern, Alfred. Sartre, His Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, by Alfred Stern,... New York: Liberal Artspress, 1953.
In this book Alfred Stern tries to explain all of Sartre's writings. He breaks it down and does his best to put it into terms more understandable by the everyday person. He also "corrects" Sartre on some points that he believes to be wrong. He goes over the main themes and ideas on Sartre's writing, which are: existence or being, existence and essence, freedoms, anxiety, authenticity and nothingness. This book was filled with information. Stern also summed up what Sartre was trying to say, without dumbing it down, which could be both good and bad, depending on how you look at it. He kept me thinking the whole way through the book and ordered it very nicely. The chapters coincided with one another very well. This book was very helpful and useful to this project. without it I wouldn't understand nearly as much. This book help me understand everything that Sartre was thinking, which is a majority of the major themes of modern existentialism. Without this book I would just be reading a bunch of dry articles that basically tell me the same thing as the last one did, and leave me not truly understanding existentialism.
Works Cited
(Craig's)
Branch, David. "Existentialism." Saint Anselm College. Saint Anselm College, 2006. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/sartreol.htm>.
Whitehawk, Shamyn. "Existentialism." Free Hosting, Web Hosting, Domain Names and Web Design | Fortunecity. 1998. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/cushing/263/exist/existentialism.html>.
Wildman, Wesley. "Existentialism." People.bu.edu --- People on the Web at Boston University. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/wphil/lectures/wphil_theme20.htm>.
"'The Existentialists,' Poetry by Rob Couteau." Tygers of Wrath. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.tygersofwrath.com/exist.htm>.