Please explain to a Noob

[VALIS]

What exactly is meant by existentialism?

[magickyleo101]

What exactly is meant by existentialism?

Sadly, given how common the term is, nothing very coherent. The problem is that the term is used as a tag for the views of philosophers who disagree with each other. You're better off just trying to figure out what each individual philosopher thinks.

Besides, analytic philosophy is where it's at. Go read Robert Nozick. It'll blow your mind.

[VALIS]

Yeah, I know all about Analytic and continental philisophy and the difference between the two. It's just I always hear about existentialism (normally related with a discussion on Sartre) I just want to know the basic foundations of this epistemology.

I'm having a hard time understanding it. It's something to do with basing beliefs on human nature(?) or something like that.

[magickyleo101]

Yeah, I know all about Analytic and continental philisophy and the difference between the two. It's just I always hear about existentialism (normally related with a discussion on Sartre) I just want to know the basic foundations of this epistemology.

I'm having a hard time understanding it. It's something to do with basing beliefs on human nature(?) or something like that.

As a general rule, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is your best bet when it comes to pretty much any philosophy question and this case is no exception.

[Ummon]

Existentialism is a philosophical school which in synthesis tells that:

1) human beings are conditioned but have a degree of freedom, and self-consciousness which allows them to act responsibly.
2) making choices is fundamental and it is unavoidable: consciousness of alternatives allows you to increase your ability to self-determination and to pursue the finding of a meaning in existence.
3) death is the most important aspect of life: the knowledge of an end is the only shared thing between men and gives meaning to your life, in the sense that it makes you look for a meaning.
4) relationships are essential for a good life but to be true in your sociality first you must learn to be alone.

[Roman Knight]

Yeah, what Ummon said. It's built around the principles that existence precedes essence and authenticity. Basically, there's no inherent meaning to anything and nothing stopping you from any course of action. As such, the only thing to do in life is accept responsibility in your actions and make some meaning before you die.

[AdamWeishaupt]

One could say with some reservations that existential undertakings start after the first World War in tension to traditions that go back to Hegel and the historisms of the late 19th century, including early schools of social philosophy.

[IrishHitman]

Existentialism is a philosophical school which in synthesis tells that:

1) human beings are conditioned but have a degree of freedom, and self-consciousness which allows them to act responsibly.
2) making choices is fundamental and it is unavoidable: consciousness of alternatives allows you to increase your ability to self-determination and to pursue the finding of a meaning in existence.
3) death is the most important aspect of life: the knowledge of an end is the only shared thing between men and gives meaning to your life, in the sense that it makes you look for a meaning.
4) relationships are essential for a good life but to be true in your sociality first you must learn to be alone.

Very general, but pretty much correct.

In terms of how you go about being an existentialist, number 3 is probably the most important.
Death is coming, you must acknowledge that you will no longer exist after it, therefore you must seek out meaning in your own life before it is too late.

[AdamWeishaupt]

In terms of how you go about being an existentialist, number 3 is probably the most important.

The existential is the temporality of the Being, the Seingeschichte. Early existentialist may have focused more on "Angst", "Krankheit zum Tode" or as Jean Anouilh had expressed it in Traveler without Luggage the loss of the memory and the search for the forgotten places of one's self. Levinas put it in his very own ways in the term of Passion, "La passion de dire" etc.

[Blau&Gruen]

Well, if you read those texts whose title you post here, then you would have hit on the explanation close to the end of Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism:

Life is nothing until it is lived; but it is yours to make sense of, and the value of it is nothing else but the sense that you choose. Therefore, you can see that there is a possibility of creating a human community.

[MaximiIian]

What exactly is meant by existentialism?

I think of existentialism as questioning the validity and value of one's existence; and in some cases, the reality of one's existence at all.

Or, in other words, the internal thoughts of this guy:

[AdamWeishaupt]

Or, in other words, the internal thoughts of this guy:

Existentialism is situation orientated, that can include the internal worlds of the mind as well as external settings like tools, animals, the relation between people or social institutions. Existential thinkers in Philosophy have had sometimes a background in Phenomenology but that is not always the case. An existentialist would ask, which are the fundamentals that show up in the depicted situation showing a cartoon character expressing thoughtfulness. A phenomenologist would have asked himself how can I describe that what turns the impressions "cartoon character expressing thoughtfulness" into an object of the mind. The example may also illustrate where you can find applications of these ways of reflection.

[finsternis]

Shinji!!!! Evangelion is awesome, best anime ever.

If you want to know about existencialism and the patheticness of human life, you should watch it.

[AdamWeishaupt]

I think, Blau&Gruen should have better conversed with us about Heidegger's Letter than about Sartre's Existentialism as a Humanism because it had lead us further and the questions are closer to our's. - You may on the other hand consider both make valuable points and we can't blame Sartre for not taking up issues that may not have been in his horizont shortly after the war. Which one would be a better recommondation for our friend of christian philosophy of existence here? I can't answer this. He should probably read both. I know Blau&Gruen would recommend him Totality and Infinity by Levinas and he forgets therewhile that not everyone thinks Herr Blau and Herr Grün are commedians worth to know of other days. I would recommend Ricoeur's last work. It may be the Summa of an epoche of reading. It has the advantage to look back.

Letter about Humanism

Language is thus the language of be[-ing] as clouds are the clouds of the sky. In what it says thinking leaves inconspicuous traces in language. They are as inconspicuous as the tracks left by the farmer who walks slowly through his fields.

[Blau&Gruen]

If you want to know about existencialism and the patheticness of human life, you should watch it.

Sartre would have said: "(E)xistentialism is optimistic".

Levinas had difficulties with Sartre's optimism.

[AdamWeishaupt]

Yes, this is true but it was not because of atheism.

[Blau&Gruen]

Can we look back already? It is strange that Levinas and Sartre drew so contrary conclusions. Both were prisoners.

[MaximiIian]

Heh?
I'm just illustrating the point that, in later episodes of Evangelion, Shinji got really existentialist. Has nothing to do with what he's doing in that picture. It's just an in-joke for those who have seen the show before.

[AdamWeishaupt]

I haven't seen this show. It is a good example because it gives to think.

[MaximiIian]

I haven't seen the show.

Oh, it's quite good; by most accounts, Neon Genesis Evangelion is among of the best, the most didactic, and the most influential anime ever crafted. Brutal deconstruction of the mecha anime genre, that delves into very deep psychological, philosophical, and religious themes; especially in the second 13 episodes. The ending is a mind-screw (and is mostly made up of stock footage, because their budget went all to hell), though the continuation movie, End of Evangelion, more than makes up for it.

Basically, the writer and director, Hideaki Anno, had suffered clinical depression for, like, four years before he made the show. During that period, he took notes about it; he used these to expand upon the emotional and psychological problems of the main characters. The central one, Shinji, becomes particularly existentialist and self-loathing by the end.