- The curiosity of how to live one's life and the philosophical and psychological inquiry's one has in order to enlarge the knowledge of life.
- The idea that if one wishes to live life, there will always be questions that they must deal with. These questions would include death, God, relationships, time, and one's conscience of their own self existence. Existentialism doesn't focus on "social" questions such as the politics of life and what "social" responsibility the society or state has but instead focus on the individual.
- Life is difficult, doesn't have a universal objective or value so the individual creates their own value and meaning of life and live it by not talking about it.
- Actions define values, not words.
- Existential struggles are focusing on making everyday life decisions meaningful and find that literary characterizations are the best way to make their struggles in life easier.
- One always has the right and freedom to do whatever one thinks is right.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Theory
The theories of existentialism include:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Do you guys view yourselves as existentialists? Or do you strive to live in that way?
ReplyDeleteI would love to think that I live like an existentialist. I think that living life to one's own personal standards and ideals would be the best way to live life. I think that if I am an existentialist, it may come from my growing up without religious influence. Because I had no belief in any higher power, I sought explanations. I thought about my own personal beliefs to find what I considered right and wrong. However, just interaction could have influenced me to adopt certain beliefs. Because of this, I can't claim to be a real existentialist.
I would love to be an existentialist but there will always be obstacles that will keep me from doing so. First, I'm still not and might never be a hundred percent sure what existentialism exactly defines and what it requires to be one because I feel like existentialism does not have set rules that define it. Second, I don't think that anyone, including myself can really fully be an existentialist because as Adrienne mentioned before, your society and peers will always affect your ideas and change them in a way that you can't ever live by rules that you make yourself without anyone else's influence.
ReplyDeleteI am most definitely not an existentialist. I feel like I have spent my life living in an environment where the people around me show some quality that makes them my superior. So I, in turn, try to recreate their success in a way that would make me see "cool." Kind of sad. I know.
ReplyDeleteSo in the end, I found a group of people who have openly accepted me for my traits and with whom I can be more the person I am originally. A group of people I am not afraid to show my weaknesses to...or my strengths...
“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
I love this honesty. I feel the same, always trying to work hard to work my way up according to another's standards. If I were to be a true existentialist, I wouldn't even be going to college next year. I would have left to another country and start from scratch over there. I'm a social and curious person, and travel doesn't seem to be an option right now.
DeleteIt seems that people can only be existentialists if they are truly limitless superiors to others. Unless you view yourself as limitless, it's not possible to think like one.