Existentialism

core concerns of existentialism

• would-be general theories leave out uniqueness of each individual

• concern with the meaning or purpose of human lives, rather than scientific or metaphysical truths, dependent on inner subjective experience

• emphasis on freedom of human beings, ability to choose attitudes, purposes, values, actions

Arthur Schopenhauer

we make excuses for the demands of the will

• love = lust

• pride = arrogance/aggression

• progress = expansion of power at others’ expense

Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche

people are driven by a fundamental Will

• Schopenhauer - Will to Life causes suffering, desire must be limited

• Nietzsche - Will to Power as life-affirming, Schopenhauer and Buddhism as life-denying

Nietzsche on Good and Evil

• the herd as those who are obedient to others

• arrogance offends those who are unable to compete

• democracy’s idea that people are equal is the universal degeneration of man by mediocritizing and depreciation

• transvaluation of values required to reclaim human beings as a species

• war and struggle are a necessary condition for progress

• life is exploitation

• Christianity, democracy, socialism, and the imposition of moral standards stifle the Will to Power and are self-denying

Nietzsche and mediocrity

• independent thought and creative action are crushed by public opinion, absorbance into the herd

• conformity and comfort become society’s highest standard

Nietzsche’s Apollonian and Dionysian aspects of human beings

• Apollonian - rational, privileged by society

• Dionysian - unconscious, irrational, passionate - intolerable to society which stifles the Will to Power/basic drive

Nietzsche’s master and slave morality

• master morality - created by the elite, that which maintains the power of masters is good

• slave morality - morality of expediency and utility, defending the weak, demonization of dominating forces

Nietzsche and the universe

a web of power relations between constituent dynamic quantal fields or systems of force; the world is a work of art that gives birth to itself through continual suffering

Bernard Reginster’s interpretation of Nietzsche against Nihilism

Nietzsche’s insatiable Will to Power (never permanent satisfaction) calls for people to continue pursuing the best life and never settling

Nietzsche’s ubermensch

over person/highest human life

• those who are behaviorally superior and maximize their potential

• a good life is one of heroic/creative struggle

• excellence and competition

Nietzsche’s basic message

• in reality, conflict, struggle, suffering, and pain are inevitable

• one should seek self-fulfillment regardless of suffering

• Amor Fati - Love of Fate

• Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence - universe is an eternal cycle, everything that has happened will happen again

Asceticism

living extremely simply, discipline and abstinence

Jean-Paul Sartre on humans and machines

• machines, en soi - in itself; no awareness

• humans, pour soi - for itself

• humans are inferior to machines - no peace of unity, have emotions

• humans are superior to machines - have a choice as part of life

• awareness of human condition allows the freedom to choose, but is also a burden on humanity

Sartre on emotions

people are in charge of their mental states

Sartre on ethical freedom

choosing for oneself is choosing for all of humanity

existentialism’s major themes

• philosophy is a way of life

• living an authentic human life entails anxiety or anguish, not exclusively but as a natural part of human existence

• awareness of situatedness in the universe (consciousness, emotions, choice)

• existence precedes essence - humanity become defined by choices

• the crowd/herd - desire for immersion to avoid human responsibility

• the universe and human situation are basically absurd

• freedom/choice and responsibility are keys to leading an authentic life

Mencius and human heartedness

morality is intuitive

Karl Marx on human nature

self is an ensemble of social relations, there is no human nature

versions of human nature

• human nature as animal nature

• human nature is innate

• human nature is what all humans have in common