An Introduction to Philosophy Lecture 10: Existentialism James Mooney Open Studies The University of Edinburgh j.mooney@ed.ac.uk www.filmandphilosophy.com @film_philosophy

1. Existentialism
Existentialism
An Introduction to Philosophy: 10
© James Mooney 2012

2. Friederich
Nietzsche
(1844-1900)
“God is dead”

3. Phenomenology
“Philosophers, as things now stand, are all too
fond of offering criticism from on high instead
of studying and understanding things from
within.” (Edmund Husserl)
“Phenomenology" means … to let that which
shows itself be seen from itself in the very way
in which it shows itself from itself.” (Martin
Heidegger)

4. L’existentialisme est un humanism (1946)
“Existence
precedes
essence”
Jean-Paul Sartre
1905-1980

5. What do we mean by saying
that existence precedes essence?
We mean that man first of all
exists, encounters himself,
surges up in the world and
defines himself afterwards.
Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism

7. Existential Angst
“Man is
condemned
to be free”

9. Bad Faith and Authenticity
“Freedom is what you do with
what’s been done to you”

10. ‘The
Other’

11. Albert
Camus
The Myth
of
Sisyphus

12. The Myth of the Eternal Return
“What, if some day or night a demon
were to steal after you into your
loneliest loneliness and say to you:
‘This life as you now live it and have
lived it, you will have to live once more
and innumerable times more’ ... Would
you not throw yourself down and gnash
your teeth and curse the demon who
spoke thus? Or have you once
experienced a tremendous moment
when you would have answered him:
‘You are a god and never have I heard
anything more divine’.”!

14. Details
James Mooney
Open Studies
The University of Edinburgh
j.mooney@ed.ac.uk
www.filmandphilosophy.com
@film_philosophy