3. Believed to have originated in Europe –betn 19th and 20th century ---Søren Kierkegaard --first
existentialist philosopher
philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice
Humans define their own meaning in life, and make rational decisions despite existing in an
irrational universe
Focus on Human Existence—why humans exist? Purpose? What should humans do and should not
do?
To find meaning in life —embrace one’s existence
Individuals are entirely free and must take personal responsibility for themselves
emphasis on action, freedom and decision as fundamental
the only way to rise above the essentially absurd condition of humanity (which is characterized by
suffering and inevitable death) is by exercising our personal freedom and choice
4. Free will of Humans –No coercion
Human nature is chosen through life choices
A person is best when struggling against their individual nature, fighting for life
Decisions are not without stress and consequences
There are things that are not rational
Personal responsibility and discipline is crucial
Society is unnatural and its traditional religious and secular rules are arbitrary
Worldly desire is futile
5.
6. Context of Existentialism
Existentialism-- time of destructions and despair following the Great Depression
and World War II
articulated into the 1970s and continued to this day as a popular way of thinking
and reasoning (with the freedom to choose one’s preferred moral belief system
and lifestyle)
Kierkegaard, a religious philosopher, Nietzsche, an anti-Christian, Sartre, an atheist,
and Camus an atheist, are credited for their works and writings about
existentialism
human life is in no way complete and fully satisfying because of suffering and
losses
lack of perfection, power, and control one has over their life
Person in power dehumanize others (not in power)
7. Concepts under Existentialism
1. Existence precedes essence—Individuality matters more than given
roles,responsibilities, labels, stereotypes,etc.
2. Absurdism—the world is meaningless beyond what meaning we give it--
encompasses the "unfairness" of the world--anything can happen to anyone anyplace
anytime
3. Facticity —both limitation and condition of freedom--one can change his/her values
and is responsible for that value(s), regardless of society's values
4. Authenticity —one has to "create oneself" and then live in accordance with this self—
one should act as oneself
5. Angst and Dread
6. Despair
8.
9.
10.
11. elements of human culture -- understood in terms of their relationship
to a larger, overarching system or structure
all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel are structured
Claude Lévi-Strauss- 1st thinker on structuralism
applied in a diverse range of fields, including anthropology, sociology,
psychology, literary criticism, economics and architecture
The origins of structuralism connect with the work of Ferdinand de
Saussure on linguistics
12. De Saussure argued for a distinction between langue (an idealized abstraction of
language) and parole (language as actually used in daily life). He argued that the
"sign" was composed of both a signified, an abstract concept or idea, and a
"signifier", the perceived sound/visual image.
Because different languages have different words to describe the same objects or
concepts, there is no intrinsic reason why a specific sign is used to express a given
signifier. It is thus "arbitrary".
Signs thus gain their meaning from their relationships and contrasts with other
signs. As he wrote, "in language, there are only differences 'without positive terms.'
13. Structuralism-Contd.
all human activity and its products (even perception and thought
itself), are constructed and not natural, and in particular that
everything has meaning
closely related to Semiotics, the study of signs, symbols and
communication, andhow meaning is constructed and understood
14. offers a way of studying how knowledge is produced and critiques
structuralist premise
argues that because history and culture condition the study of
underlying structures, both are subject to biases and misinterpretations
Opp. To structuralism—no structure in lang.---began in 1960s
post-structural view holds that persons are culturally and discursively
structured, created in interaction as situated, symbolic beings
15. (Person) Subjects are created, then, through their cultural meanings and
practices, and occupy various culturally-based sites of meaning
Subjects are material beings, embodied and present in the physical
world
Subjects are social in their very origin: they take their meaning and
value and self-image from their identity groups, from their activities in
society, from their intimate relations
Poststructuralism sees 'reality' as being much more fragmented, diverse,
tenuous and culture-specific
16. Post-structuralism is marked by a rejection of totalizing, essentialist, foundationalist
concepts:
-- a totalizing concept puts all phenomena under one explanatory concept (e.g. it's
the will of God)
--an essentialist concept suggests that there is a reality which exists independent of,
beneath or beyond, language and ideology -- that there is such a thing as 'the
feminine', for instance, or 'truth' or 'beauty'
--a foundationalist concept suggests that signifying systems are stable and
unproblematic representations of a world of fact which is isomorphic with human
thought.
