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ACT and Existentialism

ACT and Existentialism. A short story of good and bad ACBS Parma 2011 Rainer F. Sonntag Olpe. Sorry for my English. All translations are mine. What is Existentialism ?. „Normal“ philosophy Diverse The concept of existence. Diversity of Existentialism. Albert Camus.

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ACT and Existentialism

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  1. ACT andExistentialism A shortstoryof goodandbad ACBS Parma 2011 Rainer F. Sonntag Olpe

  2. Sorry formy English. All translationsaremine.

  3. WhatisExistentialism? • „Normal“ philosophy • Diverse • The conceptofexistence

  4. DiversityofExistentialism Albert Camus Sören Kierkegaard Jean-Paul Sartre Gabriel Marcel Karl Jaspers Martin Heidegger

  5. WhatisExistence? • Specifically human • Behavingtowardsone‘sbehavior • Action – Existenceprecedesessence • Freedom (– asblessingandascurse)

  6. Philadelphia • 2005

  7. Albert Camus (1913-1960)

  8. When Karl Jaspers, revealing the impossibility of constituting the world as a unity, exclaims: “This limitation leads me to myself, where I can no longer withdraw behind an objective point of view that I am merely representing, where neither I myself nor the existence of others can any longer become an object for me,”

  9. he is evoking after many others those waterless deserts where thought reaches its confines. After many others, yes indeed, but how eager they were to get out of them! At that last crossroad where thought hesitates, many men have arrived and even some of the humblest. They then abdicated what was most precious to them, their life.

  10. Others, princes of the mind, abdicated likewise, but they initiated the suicide of their thought in its purest revolt. The real effort is to stay there, rather, in so far as that is possible, and to examine closely the odd vegetation of those distant regions. Tenacity and acumen are privileged spectators of this inhuman show in which absurdity, hope, and death carry on their dialogue.. (Camus: Myth of Sisiphus)

  11. Strugglingwithambiguity • Thiscitationexpressesthedeepexperienceof human ambivalence. • Just whenitismostimportanttouswe do not succeed in decidingbetweentwo alternatives by rational, calculatingweighingofprosandcons.

  12. Strugglingwithambiguity • In a similarvein Richard Rorty characterizes a „liberal ironic“ assomeonewhodeniesthatthereis a rational answertoquestionslike: • „Why not beingcruel?“ • Such questionsareashopelessas:

  13. Strugglingwithambiguity „Is it right to deliver n innocents over to be tortured to save the lives of m x n other innocents? If so, what are the correct values of m and n? … Anybody who thinks that there are well-grounded theoretical answers to this sort of questions – algorithms for resolving moral dilemmas of this sort – is still, in his heart, a theologian or a metaphysician.” (Rorty, 1989, p. xv)

  14. Strugglingwithambiguity • Interesting, isn‘tit? • Calculatingthinking (Heidegger), i.e. rational thinkingastheologyandmetaphysics! • Andifwecan‘tcalculatedecisionswhatthen?

  15. Relinquish solid ground & confide

  16. Coming toaction • Presentmoment – andthen: • Jumping (Kierkegaard) witheyes open • Not easy! • Wedon‘tliketo „thinkwithoutbannister“ (Hannah Arendt)

  17. Coming toaction • On theotherhand: • Jumpingcanfeelfree (bungeejumbing) • The jump voluntarily • Wearethrownintoourfreedomtodecideandchoose (Heidegger) • How do we deal withthat?

  18. The waytofreedom • (to a freeself)

  19. Predecessors Voltaire Montesquieu Diderot Rousseau Philippe Pinel

  20. 14th July 1789 The French Revolution

  21. Predecessors • Isaak Newton(1642-1726) breaksthe power oftheology • David Hume (1711-1776): Religion cannotbejustifiedrationally • Hume again: • Causalityis a fiction. • Nowayfrombeing (science) toought (ethics)

  22. So what? • Nowhere solid ground • Religion passé • Even sciencecannotgiveusdirection

  23. Johann Gottlieb Fichte 1790 „I am living in a newworldsince a readthe ‚Critiqueof Pure Reason‘. Sentences I believedtobeunfailablearemadefailed; Kant

  24. things I thoughttobeunproofable, e.g. theconceptof absolute freedom, der Pflicht etc., havebeenproofedforme, andaboutthat I am muchthemore happy. Itisunbelievablewhatrespectfor human kind , what power thissystemgivesus!“ Kant

  25. The selfsetsitself. 1762-1814

  26. The bigamazement „I am writing, so I have an imaginationofmywriting, however, othersarewritingbesideme. How do I knowthatmywritingis not thewritingofanotherone?“ … „why do I seemyseeingasmine? […] Why do wecountourimaginationsasbelongingtous?“ (zit. n. Großheim, 2004, S. 199).

  27. Early perspectivetaking Fichte andthe wall: „See thedifference betweenyour-self andthe wall“

  28. The bigword „The selfsetsitself, anditis, byvirtueofthismeresettingthroughitself; andviceversa: theselfis, anditsetsitsbeing, byvirtueofitsmerebeing.

  29. The bigword Atthe same time itistheacting, andtheproductoftheaction; thedoing, andthat, whatisputforththroughtheactions; actinganddeedareoneandthe same; thereforeis:

  30. The bigword I am, expressionof a deed-action; […] The selfisaswhateveritsetsitself; anditsetsitselfasthatwhatitis. Thus: I am quite, what I am“ (Fichte, 1794, S. 16).

  31. That‘sit

  32. Difficult • Freedom

  33. FriedrichSchlegel(1772-1829)

  34. Schlegel atilt „A freeandeducated human beingshouldbeabletoarbitraryandas he likes puthimselfinto a philosophicalorphilological, critiqualorpoetic, historicalorrhetoric, antiqueor modern mood, totallyvoluntary, justasonetunesan instrument, atany time, andatanyintensity.“ Kritische Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe. Erste Abteilung: Kritische Neuausgabe, Band 2, München, Paderborn, Wien, Zürich 1967, S. 147-164. http://www.zeno.org/nid/20005618886

  35. Freedom ishardto stand Riders on thestorm Into this house we're born Into this world we're thrown Like a dog without a bone An actor out alone Riders on the storm

  36. Freedom ishardto stand • Coerciontoauthenticity • Political existentialism • Adventureexistentialism

  37. Coercsiontoauthenticity Heidegger • Inauthenticityas a „sin“ • Fundamental ontologyassolution • The „völkische“ in National Socialism

  38. Karl Jaspers & Defusion

  39. Coercsiontoauthenticity • Concordancetherapy: • Learning to bring thoughts, bodilyprocesses, andmotoractionsintoaccordance

  40. Political Existentialism • „What counts, is total dedication“ (Sartre, 1946 in his diary) • Terrorism • The „eerie world of absolute selflessness“ (Hannah Arendt, 1951)“

  41. Glorificationof war „The male‘scouragereallyisthemostdelicious“ (The fightasinnerexperience, 1926) Ernst Jünger

  42. Adventureexistentialism • „Our time shows strong pacifisttendencies. • Thistrendcomesfromtwosources: idealism • blood-dread. • The firstavoids war because he loves human • beings, theotherbecause he isafraid.

  43. Adventureexistentialism The whole lifeas a dare

  44. Story telling • „Take itlightly“ • Defusionwith Richard Rorty: It‘s all just • stories

  45. The purposeoffreedom?

  46. Well,

  47. Love!

  48. „Self-knowledge is of social origin. It is only when a person’s private world becomes important to others that it is made important to him.” (About behaviorism. 1974)

  49. Human Flourishing

  50. Science and Ancient Ideas of What it Means to be Human: Exploring the Implicit Values Underlying ACT

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