EXISTENTIALISM

1. EXISTENTIALISM “ I am not a logician. I am an existentialist. I believe in this meaningless, beautiful chaos of existence, and I am ready to go with it wherever it leads.” Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh quotes

2. 6 Basic Themes of Existentialism • 1. Man is conscious subject rather than a thing to be predicted or manipulated. • 2. Anxiety -- a generalized uneasiness. • 3. Absurdity -- Each of us is simply here, having been thrown into this time and place, but why now? • 4. Nothingness -- "I am my own existence, but my existence is nothingness." • 5. Death -- The only certainty of life which hangs over existentialist head at each moment of life. • 6. Alienation -- apart from the existentialist’s own conscious being, everything else is "otherness", from which he or she estranged.

3. 1. Man is a conscious subject rather than a thing to be predicted or manipulated. • Most believe Existentialism was a reaction against the more linear thinking of the Rationalists and Empiricists. • Existentialists believe existence is defined from the inside, out. • Focus shifted from the world at large to the individual’s experience inside the confines of that world.

4. And more. . . . . . • The dread of the nothingness of human existence. This dark picture of human life leads Existentialists to reject ideas such as happiness and a sense of well being. • Man must struggle to find meaning in the world • Man must try to communicate and to establish meaningful relationships with other creatures

5. 2. Anxiety -- a generalized uneasiness. • Existential Angst describes the internal conflict experienced by every conscious individual due to the fact that the world is not a rational place and existence is a constant struggle. • Life is a constant struggle. The world is filled with horrors and uncertainty from which no matter how hard we try (drugs, meditation, sleep) we can never escape.

6. Absurdity • There are no givens, universal truths or certainty in life. • At any moment, everything could change. • Man must accept the notion that the world is absurd, hostile and irrational. • The greater part of one’s energy must be geared toward survival, whether physically or socially • There is no absolute good or absolute evil in the world. All is relative. Right and wrong are determined only by circumstance and necessity. Values invented to urge social compliance.

7. Nothingness • To be human means that "existence comes before essence." • A pencil was made for the purpose of writing. But humans do not have an essence, Existentialists claim, because humans were not made for any particular purpose, and so have no predetermined essence. • Therefore, humans are what they choose to become. "Man [Humanity] is nothing else but that which he makes of himself". Humans are free. Freedom is a burden.

8. Death • Death is an ever-present end to which, there is no escape. • This recognition causes anxiety. • The only sure way to end anxiety once and for all is death.

9. Alienation • Each individual human being is fundamentally alone • One’s essential lack of communion with others makes the individual ultimately responsible for his or her own decisions. • Existentialists seek to avoid intruding on the lives and "boundaries" of others. Since there is no such thing as absolute right or wrong, one has no business telling others how to behave, or imposing standards from outside that the individual should develop for himself.

10. The Look • Central to Existential thought • The idea that being conscious of being observed by another creature, whether human or animal, has a profound effect on the way the receiver of that look perceives his environment. • The knowledge that others are observing us has a profound impact on our own perceptions of situations, perceptions of ourselves, and perceptions of right and wrong. It is a great motivator.

11. The Grotesque • Presented the ugly and distorted rather than the beautiful, a victim of social castigation, an outsider. • Used as social commentary on the Industrial Age and WWI. • A reaction against Romantic writing that presented an ordered and benevolent world, where things in the end tied together neatly.

12. Lost in Translation • There is much debate over the translation of the first lines of the story, “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” The German word “Ungeziefer” has a connotation of something of the lowest value in the eyes of society; a scourge or bane.

13. Kafka • Born in 1883 to a middle-class, German-speaking, Jewish family in Prague. • Domineering, cold father; loving but non-committal mother • Feelings of alienation and isolation plagued him throughout his life and are reflected in his writing. • Died of tuberculosis; against his wishes published posthumously.