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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A joke on existentialism [duplicate]
First can somebody explain me the meaning of "Existentialism" in a layman's term. I looked up Wikipedia and some other sites but I am not getting the definition.
In an episode of 'Criminal Minds', a ...
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What did Camus mean when he wrote "All thoughts are anthropomorphic"?
I am currently reading the Myth of Sisyphus and I came across the following:
All thoughts are anthropomorphic
My Interpretation
Prior to reading this, I had no idea what "anthropomorphic" meant....
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Reference suggestions - Contemporary Western Philosophy
I want to read following topics
Moore, Russell and Early Wittgenstein: Defence of Commonsense; Refutation of Idealism; Logical Atomism; Logical Constructions; Incomplete Symbols; ...
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Why does Sartre say one cannot be anything unless others recognize one as such?
I was reading "Existentialism is a humanism" here. Though most of it is clear, I have trouble understanding how he makes the below claim which comes near the end of the lecture. How do you go from "I ...
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Transcendental ego
I am reading Sartre's Transcendence of the ego and was wondering if someone could explain to me what is concretely different between Husserl's Transcendent ego and Sartre's.
When I raised this ...
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Is Rilke an existentialist?
This isn't really an aesthetics question, but a question of interpreting a poem philosophically; a kind of philosophical hermeneutics of poetry; Rilke is well-known as a metaphysical poet.
Towards the ...
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Isn't Nietzsche's Übermensch idea self-contradictory?
Doesn't Nietzsche's Übermensch contradicts itself in that understanding everything would enable propagation of that understanding?
Wouldn't Nietzsche's Übermensch eventually fully understand how the ...
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Why does Kierkegaard suggest indolence makes ressentiment dangerous?
Nietzsche is well known for his notion of ressentiment which he had taken from Kierkegaard and develops in the Anti-Christ; Kierkegaard notes In the Present Age the positive value of ressentiment in ...
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Sartre and Existentialism
Can we cultivate ethics or morals from Sartre's existentialist perspective? What does he mean
by a world where not only God does not exist but “Man” too? Is it a different world than
Nietzsche's ...
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Existentialism in relation to Roberto Unger's Beyond Nihilism
Roberto Mangabeira Unger's series of talks Beyond Nihilism sorts historical religions and other -isms (democracy, liberalism, socialism, romantizism etc.) eloquently into three orientations, namely ...
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Who are some anti-existentialist philosophers and what were there arguments against it?
I have done quite a bit of research into this and I simply cannot find much at all about arguments against existentialism aside from determinism, religious arguments and essentialism, let alone any ...
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How did Antiquity deal with the disappearance of the Transcendent?
In Western Philosophy, Existentialism heeding Nietzches call was the first philosophy that dealt with the loss of the transcendent in a formal way.
Whereas prior to him, it anchored, or rather was ...
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Sartrian Freedom Compatible with Determinism?
In Being and Nothingness, Sartre talks about how humans are "condemned to be free". But I was wondering if, because Sartre's philosophy is phenomenological ontology, what this really amounts to is ...
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Can Something Exist in Nothing (Outside the bounds of our Universe)?
I have always been intrigued by cosmology and the idea that there is a possibility that absolutely nothing exists beyond our universe.
Now I know that there are many theories regarding the universe (...
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Does Sartre imitate Kant in moral philosophy?
This is not originally my question but someone deleted their question while I was typing an answer to it. Consequently, I'm reposting the question and then my answer -- n.b., I've changed the title ...
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What are the Main Objections to Being and Nothingness?
I am currently in the process of reading Being and Nothingness. In the interest of getting through it, I have not been fully challenging Sartre's theory as I go along. Can someone point to the main ...
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what lies beyond absurdity?
What should I read to break out of the endless loop that brings me back to the absurdity of (my?) perceived reality? (I'm not talking on a human scale but on an endless time scale) If the question has ...
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What are some philosophical arguments for accepting absurdity?
In absurdist philosophy, the Absurd arises out of the fundamental disharmony between the individual's search for meaning and the meaninglessness of the universe. As beings looking for meaning in a ...
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Does Sartre deny the existence of an excuse?
In L'Existentialisme he writes extensively how since we are born free, condemned to be so in fact, we are only shaped by the actions and choices that we make. With this isolation, does he destroy the ...
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The reality of self [closed]
A person is perceived and judged by their actions. Frequently the intention or motive of a person's actions can be misunderstood or misinterpreted for a variety of factors.
A few possible factors ...
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Man's Relation to AI vs. God's Relation to Man
I have been a hacker and programmer since I was 14 and I have done advanced education and research in Artificial Intelligence. We all know that we do not yet have a computer entity that is "truly" ...
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Origins of fear [closed]
I have a few questions about fear and loneliness
What is the fear?
Where does the fear come from?
Why a person is afraid of loneliness?
Why a lonely person tends to isolate themselves even more?
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Existentialism and the absensce of free will
One of the most famous doctrines of existentialism formulated by Jean Paul Sartre is that we are absolutely free.
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible ...
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Is Camus 'Outsider' an argument for, or a critique of existentialism?
I've read Camus 'Outsider' twice. And have seen it acted out in the theatre.
I do not think I understand it, though I can admire Camus prose style.
Its often taken as canonical in existentialist ...
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What does Sartre mean when he says people are "condemned to be free"?
What did Jean-Paul Sartre mean when he said that because there is no creator, humans are "Condemned to be Free"?
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what are the differences of existentialism to epicurianism?
Although not an expert, I do see many similarities on both these currents' focus on man himself, aboloshing all idols and taking control of his fate. Are there any real differences between these two ...
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'Meaning of life' as per Viktor Frankl's Man's search for Meaning
I recently read 'Man's search for Meaning' by Viktor Frankl. It was a very moving book and in it the author describes three ways in which a man may find meaning in his life.
1.Through some creative ...
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Rationality of Suicide?
I came across a story about a kid who committed suicide after carefully calculating the benefits of life and deciding it was not worth living.
I am wondering if any philosopher has considered the ...
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Is existentialism the "practical" nihilism?
Nihilism states that no matter what you do, it's meaningless. But how do you decide then, what to do?
A few years back I read "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Camus, in which he tackles the question, if ...
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Has Descartes also been analyzed from a psychological point of view, including the circumstances of his time?
One way to look at "cogito ergo sum" is as an interesting intellectual thought. But Descartes clearly indicates that he actually had this thought in winter 1619 under very special circumstances:
I ...
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What is an existentialist?
When watching this speech by the Atari founder, he says (at 09:19):
If you're a true existentialist [...] you want to have an interesting life.
Thus, if someone says he or she is an existentialist,...
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Do Kierkegaard's non-pseudonymous writings enable one to understand Kierkegaard's philosophy much?
As I read them, Kierkegaard's writings can be split into two groups: the mostly philosophical psuedonymous, and more theological non-pseudonymous works.
I have read primarily the pseudonymous works (...
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Is atheism a requirement for a consistent existentialist philosophy?
Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to be the "father of existentialism". This always bothered me, since to me Sartre and Camus are the defining figures of the movement, and it seems that there ...
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