Existentialism

Any thoughts? Jean-Paul Sartre can be an interesting read.

 

~

 

is he?
or are you merely playing a role in a dream that someone else is having about reading?

 

not terribly versed on the topic. what's the basic idea?

 

life is ultimately without meaning

this will get you up to speed

 

weird. i found that a bit contradictory. it seems the basic premise is that things just are, and there is no inherent reason. but then, there's a whole paragraph devoted to what beings are required to do (make choice and take responsibility). why? if nothing has meaning, why bother? i don't mean that in the pessimistic way, i mean that in the sense of why suggest there's a "rule" to live by when you're saying things have no meaning?

 

I dunno - is so much that nothing has meaning or is it that the belief is that things don't "happen for a reason" as the christian faith would have you believe... things happen because of "your choice" Its focus is more of you make a choice and take the responsibility versus some biblical "gods plan"...

 

i dunno. that sounds more empowering than what seems the typical view of the ultra-pessimstic existentialist. i think the utter meaninglessness of it all is part of the philosophy. in that regard, i guess the only meaning that remains is what people create for themselves, so i could see how there's an ownership of responsibility that is inherently foisted upon the individual.

 

yea, kinda sorta... its been 25 years since my paper on Jean Paul - there was some stuff about exist... that seemed to hold some merit... guess that's why I posted the tread... I was hoping a resident expert could just spout off some thouthts...

 

by no means an expert, but i think the indicative phrase of existentialism is from nietzche. i may not remember it exactly, but it was "when fighting monsters, one must take care not to become a monster" the duality of man, to do both good and evil, seemingly at the same time, is how life is an exercise in futility. there is no grand and secret plan bestowed on us by a creator, life is what we make it. i guess it is similar in a sense to the clockwork universe concept from victorian times, at least in regards to there not being divine intervention, rather we are wound up and allowed to go on our own to the end. it's often associated with the beat generation, but it may only be an association of convenience. existentialism's demphasis on predetermination and religion in general supported marx's assertion that religion is the opiate of the masses, and beatniks, for whatever reason, either the need to be a "free" person or the need to simply rebel against the current social structure, embraced the communist movement. again, i am no expert. philosophers are a nutty bunch. they still wheel out bentham's mummified corpse at university college london so he can participate in the annual university board meeting. i've never awakened to find myself transformed into a cockroach.