Questions tagged [existentialism]
A loose title covering : the individual, the experience of choice, and the absence of rational understanding of the universe with a consequent dread or sense of absurdity in human life.
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Is There a World That Exactly Mimics Our Own?
If parallel universes do indeed exist and if we are just viewing one tiny part of reality, is it possible that in an alternate universe there would appear an exact replica of our world?
Note: I ...
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Which authors have discussed embarassment in philosophy?
Could anyone point me to some authors who have discussed the theme of embarrassment in depth? I couldn't find anyone with basic Google search.
I was hoping there must be some works regarding the ...
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What does de Silentio ( Kierkegaard) object to calling it a "trial" in Fear and Trembling
I'm currently going through Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and, in particular, there is a passage at the end of Preliminary Expectations that discusses why it is wrong to call the binding of isaac ...
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If life is absurd, is immortality desirable?
If life lacks any meaning and we react in the way Camus wants us to then we can focus on other things and personal human projects. Does this mean that immortality becomes desirable?
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How can a non-religious person justify or rationalize hope or optimism in an absurd world?
I don't mean to make this post too personal, but I've been in the midst of the first kind of existential funk in my life. A bunch of negative things have happened around me recently, and as a pretty ...
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How do I free myself from being enslaved by the randomness of reality without committing suicide? [closed]
I want to state two points first:
I do not find suicide as a possible solution for me. The last
thing I would do is to kill myself, because I want to live forever.
This is a philosophical question, “...
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How does Stoicism relate to Existentialism?
I was wondering about the relation or influence that Stoicism had on Existentialism and Existentialist thinkers, such as Camus, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Sartre.
In any of their works do they ...
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How to express Nihilism and Existentialism without explicitly stating it as such?
If I am given a video clip where a subject is looking at busy pedestrians through a window of a cafe and I am supposed to express nihilistic and/or existentialist thoughts running through the subject'...
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Is "the self" a relativistic referential abstraction? What current philosophy form does this fit into?
I wrote this about 8 years ago.
Consider the following ideas as though I, me, my and mine were substituted for the word self.
· Self-awareness ·Self-concept · Self-consciousness · Self-identity ...
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how do we stop caring about what others think of us?
I realized it's a universal problem (after reading an explanation for Sartre's "hell is other people"), that nobody is free from (except obsessed people), but all i'm left with is myself. I know it's ...
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What are some essential quotes or excerpts from Existentialist literature?
I'm working on an english project on Existentialism, and my job is to find and explain quotes from Existentialist literature. I already have a quote from Nausea by Jean-Paul Sarte that I will include ...
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What is "disclosure" in the work of Simone DeBeauvoir
I'm reading The Ethics of Ambiguity and she's constantly referring to this concept of "disclosure". "Being discloses itself" is a recurring phrase. "another way of disclosing the world." is another ...
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Critique of Nietzsche's 'Ressentiment'?
I know roughly what Nietzsche conceives 'ressentiment' to be, basically the inability to react to (and hence festering of) the feeling of being oppressed and powerless over a long time.
Does anyone ...
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How is it possible for someone to live life to the fullest without becoming obsessed?
Is there anybody who is free from the preoccupation with the trivial in life without being obsessed and absorbed by dogma?
It seems like only a maniac could be free from the guilt that prevents ...
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Questions about nothingness, existentialism, death
I have been feeling really oppressed recently and have been thinking constantly about my own death and what misery the death of a loved one would bring to me as I am stranger to that feeling. I don’t ...
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Why do people consider immediate pleasure irrational?
Why is immediate pleasure considered by the majority as irrational and as a trait restricted only to non human animals?
What's more rational than immediate pleasure if death is inevitable and more ...
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Refuting nihilism - why pursue happiness if it can be stripped from us by accidental events at any time?
I was encouraged to start a new question thread pertaining to a question that sprung out from this one. According to one of the users's answers:
The delusion of the joys of life that had ...
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Is faith necessary for man to survive / why is existentialism valued if it is unsubstantiated?
I'd like to point out that I have basically no knowledgeable background in philosophy, but this question has been troubling me as of late, and I need an informed take on this.
I was watching a video ...
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Why did Albert Camus regard both physical suicide and philosophical suicide the same in terms of inferiority?
This is not a debate whether the acceptance of the absurd is superior/inferior/equal to physical suicide, but as the title says.
I think physical suicide should come at-least in-between.
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How come nihilism is so popular today?
I've been trying to attack this question (or more precisely, come up with an answer to that fact) for some time now, but after a while of research I'm suddenly not so sure of the reason the situation ...
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Is plastic surgery cheating evolution or genetics? [closed]
In the West and modern society, is plastic surgery objectively cheating genetic destiny?
Say a man is not too attractive -- average looking -- and does not manage many sexual partners, if any at all. ...
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Is existence restricted by rendering?
Is existence restricted by the rendering of the being?
For example, as I am rendered as a physical being in the form of my body, is the plane of my existence limited to the physical world?
I would ...
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In what ways are Kierkegaard and Hegel similar?
It is well known that Kierkegaard's philosophy is, in large part, a response to or critique of Hegel's philosophy. How, then, are they similar? Is there any way to reconcile their differences, or to ...
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From which work of Jean-Paul Sartre did he write “Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”?
In which work did Jean-Paul Sartre write this quote?
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Techniques of overcoming ennui (boredom)
Did any philosophers discuss overcoming ennui/boredom?
I read this question and its answer, but I am less interested in a definition of boredom and more interested in direct approaches or theories ...
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Am I a nihilist?
I am trying to find the name of the philosophy which matches my beliefs, so that
I can research further without having similar but different results getting in the way.
The key features I'm looking ...
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About ideologies or movements for an unwanted werewolf, is Dualism? [Spanish accepted] [closed]
Good Day, how are you?
Today I want to ask about philosophical ideologies or movements that can help me understand what is happening behind a character that I want to analyze.
First a bit of ...
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How can I answer to the question: who am I?
Almost always when we try to answer to the question "Who am I?", we say about what we do or what we like, but how should we answering this question? If you can recommend me books or papers to at least ...
user14184
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Difference between Husserl and Sartre on ego?
Have seen some sites like IEP. But still not clear about the difference.
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Has Ingmar Bergman's existentialism been studied by philosophers?
The legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman oftentimes is described as incorporating the language of existential philosophy into his films. Common in his work from the late '50s onward are characters who ...
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What is the meaning of sadness?
What does it mean to be sad?
It just occurred to me that this is the (pseudo?) existential question that is making me sad.
user25714
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What do atheists believe in? (in layman terms)
Issue
I travel quite a bit and am often asked about my religious beliefs. I am atheist. I found it hard for some religious (or spiritual) people (whatever religion) to accept the concept of atheism ...
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How do you have to rate the probability of an existential claim?
If the prior probability of every universal hypothesis is zero how would you have to rate the probability of the statement that unicorns (at least one) exist?
Probability of an event = number of ...
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Is love a phenomenon of mauvaise foi?
In front of love, is still men condemned to be free? Arguably, when in love, the infinite range of possible choices collapses in one, the loved one. Is this a form of mauvaise foi (we convince ...
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Does philosophy ask "why am I here" to help us understand how we got here?
Does philosophy ask "why am I here" in the sense of helping us understand how we got here?
Specifically, will philosophy help (I'm sure they won't answer it directly!) me understand why it is that I ...
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What types of arguments convert nihilists to existentialists?
I will not pretend this question does not have personal significance to me, but that need not to be overly elaborated.
By studying cases in which existentialists attempt to give advice to nihilists (...
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What are some arguments for the metaphysical specialty of life or consciousness
There are certain people who consider conscious beings or "life", however that is define, to be important in the sense that there is some form of intrinsic value in them or that they are axiomatically ...
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The phenomenon of Négatité
I am a novice to JP Sartre's philosophy of existentialism and I came across the notion that in Being and Nothingness,The Origin of Negation where he claims that "nothingness is at the origin of ...
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Sartre on essence
Yesterday my professor said something that seemed rather strange. Roughly, it was
According to Sartre, humans are the only beings that don't have an essence.
Now I haven't read Sartre, and I'm not ...
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Can moral behaviour be based on a lie?
If knowledge implies justified belief, as is traditionally supposed,
then skepticism about justified moral belief implies skepticism about
moral knowledge. However, even if knowledge does require ...
user6917
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Does agnosticism require absolution?
Can agnosticism be interpreted as requiring an absolute or ubiquitous force in living?
By absolute I generalize a concept "as is": the same idea as irrefutable, or governing without using what I feel ...
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Support For Empty Room Idea
In an empty room, a person can overcome irrationality such as desire, sustain, and the process of being compelled through long enough introspection.
("long enough" meaning immortality if needed)
Are ...
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Theory that we do everything for our own benefit
Are there any popular theories or principles that answer this question: Do all actions proceed from a need to satisfy one's own personal discontent?
In the future I want to study theoretical physics. ...
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Correlation to Existential Nihlism and Life
First thing to state is my lack of formal education on philosophy. This may lead to many errors in interpretation or understanding.
The general question I have is
why do existential nihilists ...
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Can we assign positive values to a role defining us, like "mother" or "chef"?
Any role that one might adopt does not define one as there is an
eventual end to one's adoption of the role; i.e. other roles will be
assigned to us, "a chef", "a mother". The self is not constant,...
user6917
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For Kierkegaard, how does being "animal" and "rational" compel us to invent meaning?
I'm working through "Alienation and Freedom" by Richard Schmitt right now.
In explaining alienation and it's precondition, he posits:
"The need for infusing one's life with meaning arises, as ...
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How to deal with the absurd life?
Philosophy was quite enjoyable in the my own self study, that was until I got onto Camus and the myth of Sisyphus, I have to stay it has really depressed me lately. My main question is how does one ...
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Trying to identify a stance (or a range of them) respecting humans as part of a wider system, while denying them any special intrinsic significance
For the purposes of a philosophical study I am seeking a framework that would regard humans fairly unsympathetically, both individually and en masse, but which is not in itself essentially pessimistic....
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What would Camus say to the objection that some people live short and very happy lives?
I have read Camus, a fairly long time ago now; feels like I didn't get the intensity then, but I'm going through the wikipedia pages, and google to get an answer. If this is the wrong site I'll go to ...
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Does Camus show that all suicide is an evil?
Does Camus show that all suicide is an evil?
What if the the girl in The Fall is about to be captured, repeatedly raped, maimed and tortured?
Is it only the insane, or even weak, who would not ...
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