2. Definition:
Is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the
meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal
responsibility.
The belief is that people are searching to find out who
and what they are throughout life as they make choices
based on their experiences, beliefs and outlook.
Personal choices become unique without the necessity
of an objective form of truth.An existentialist believes
that a person should be forced to choose and be
responsible without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or
traditions. http://www.allaboutphilosophy
.org/the-elephant-principle-video.htm
3. Existentialism takes into account the underlying concepts:
1. Human free will
2. Human nature is chosen through life choices
3. A person is best when struggling against their
individual nature, fighting for life
4. Decisions are not without stress and consequences
5. There are things that are not rational
6. Personal responsibility and discipline is crucial
7. Society in unnatural and its traditional religious
and secular rules are arbitrary
8. Worldly desire is futile
Existentialism does not support any of the following:
1. Wealth, pleasure or honor make the good life
2. Social values and structure control the individual
3. Accept what is and that is enough in life
4. Science can and will make everything better
5. People are basically good but ruined by society or
external forces
4. This ideas came out of a time in society when there was
a deep sense of despair following the Great Depression
and World War II.
There was a spirit of optimism in society that was
destroyed by World War I and its mid-century
calamities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iW74PnBIGo
An existentialist could either be a religious moralist,
agnostic relativist, or an amoral atheist. Kierkegaard, a
religious philosopher, Nietzche, an anti-Christian, Sartre
an athist, and Camus an atheist, are credited for their
works and writings about existentialism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTdU6HS_Ffw
Existencialism - Impact on Society
5. Themes and Ideas of Existentialism
• Existence precedes Essence
• Dread, anxiety and anguish
• Bad Faith & Fallenness
• Abandonment: Condemned to be Free
• Subjectivity: Individuals vs. Systems
• Ethical Individualism
• Absurd and absurdity
6. Authors in Existentialism
Paul Sartre (Nausea 1938)
Albert Camus (The Stranger 1942)
Ezra Pound (The Cantos of Ezra
Pound 1948)
• Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot
1949)
7. References:
Cline, A. Classic Literature. Existentialism
Literary Theory.(Look for related
searches).
http://classiclit.about.com/od/Existentialism_Literar
