1. EXISTENTIALISM
FREE WILL
CHOICE

2. What is Existentialism?
Philosophical and literary movement
elements date back to Socrates and the Bible
peak was 19th and 20th centuries
developed in reaction to civil unrest especially WWII

3. MAJOR EXISTENTIALIST THEMES
Moral Individualism
Choice & Commitment
Dread & Anxiety

4. MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM
MORAL INDIVIDUALISM
A. Choose your own way w/o the help of universal/objective standards
B. personal experience and acting on one’s own convictions lead to the truth

5. MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM Cont.
C. The most important ques. in life are not accessible to reason or science
***CHOICE & COMMITMENT***
A. Choices create our essence or nature

6. MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM Cont.
B. choice is central to human existence
C. even choosing not to choose is a choice
D. death is the ultimate choice
E. with choice/free will comes responsibility
F. decisions are not right or wrong only better or worse: choose then ACT

7. MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM Cont.
G. The number of people affected by the decision determines its importance
H. part of the responsibility of choice is the acceptance of the consequences that accompany the choice
DREAD & ANXIETY
A. dread= a feeling of apprehension

8. MAIN TENETS OF EXISTENTIALISM Cont.
B. total freedom of choice leads to anguish or dread.
Ex. In “The Guest” Daru is stressed about the necessity of making a decision about the Arab’s future.
C. Human life is full of ambiguity

9. EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS
Death
the meaning of human existence
the place of God in human existence
the meaning of value
interpersonal relationship
place of self-reflective conscious knowledge of one’s self in existing

10. A POINT OF CLARIFICATION ON EXISTENTIALISM
Existentialists do not recognize any human or immortal authority BUT most Existentialists ARE NOT atheists.
Many of them are religious, but God gave humanity free will and therefore does not play an active role in our decision making.

11. MAJOR FIGURES Soren Kierkeggard founder of modern Existentialism
Jean Paul Sartre
existence precedes essence

12. MAJOR FIGURES CONT. Friedrich Nietzsche
The individual must decide which situations count as moral situations.
Martin Heidegger
Anxiety leads to individual’s confrontation with nothingness & impossibility of finding ultimate justification for the choices he/she makes.

13. MAJOR FIGURES CONT. Fyodor Dostoyevsky Russian novelist
Franz Kafka
Austrian Jewish writer
emphasis on individual’s isolation & man’s confrontation with elusive, menacing bureaucracies
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Russian novelist
greatest existentialist literary figure

14. MAJOR FIGURES CONT. Albert Camus Algerian writer
major themes: absurdity and futility of life & the indifference of the universe
Theatre of the Absurd
Playwrights: Eugene Ionesco & Samuel Beckett
Major themes: absurdity & futility of existence

15. KEY EXISTENTIAL QUOTES
“we are condemned to be free.” ~Sartre
“life is absurd.” ~Camus
Human beings require a rational basis for their existence, but unable to find one, human life is a “futile passion.” ~Sartre

16. KEY EXISTENTIAL QUOTES
Heidegger argued that humanity finds itself in an incomprehensible, indifferent world. Human beings can never hope to understand why they are here; instead, each individual must choose a goal and follow it with passionate conviction, aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate meaninglessness of one’s life.

17. KEY EXISTENTIAL QUOTES
“We must love life more than the meaning of it.” ~Dostoyevsky
Sartre reminds us that actions and statements, most choices, are made within the view of others---and others will determine if we are liars or being authentic.

18. KEY EXISTENTIALIST QUOTES
“If you are born cowards, you can be quite content, you can do nothing about it and you can be cowards all your life whatever you do; and if you are born heroes you can again be quite content; you will be heroes all your life, eating and drinking heroically. Whereas the existentialist says that the coward makes himself cowardly, the hero makes himself heroic; and that there is the possibility for the coward to give up cowardice and for the hero to stop being heroic.” ~Sartre

19. How to be Happy in an Existentialist world!
Accept/Embrace the meaninglessness of existence/ Stop trying to find meaning b/c there isn’t any
Make “better” choices and act on them
Understand that decision-making is a stressful, solitary act, even when in a group, but it is necessary to existence
societal structures are the result of men & women attempting to limit their choices