1. ANDREW WYETH
Christina’s World (1948)
A complex philosophy
emphasizing the absurdity
of reality and the human
responsibility to make
choices and accept
consequences!
2. MARK ROTHKO
Untitled (1968)
Big Ideas of ExistentialismBig Ideas of Existentialism
Despite encompassing a
huge range of
philosophical, religious,
and political ideologies, the
underlying concepts of
existentialism are simple…
3. Introductory Question:
• What do you know with
absolute certainty?
(Perhaps the key question with which to begin
any philosophical investigation)
4. “I am….”
Existentialism starts at the same point as
Descartes’ philosophy – with your existence
as the original certainty. You might not
know anything else, but you at least know
you exist (in some way) because you are
thinking. As Descartes stated it:
“I think, therefore, I am.”
7. Existence Precedes EssenceExistence Precedes Essence
Cogito ergo sum.
Existentialism is the title of the set of philosophical
ideals that emphasize the existence of the human being,
the lack of meaning and purpose in life, and the solitude
of human existence… “Existence precedes essence”
implies that the human being has no essence (no essential
self).
8. This means that Man is
1.Identified by his actions
2.That He is responsible for his actions
EXISTENCE
PRECEDES ESSENCE
11. We are FreeWe are Free
This is not referring to political freedom;
rather that there are no psychological or
metaphysical forces that determine the
person you become or the actions you take.
You are free to be the person that you
choose. Rather than a blessing, this is a
tremendous responsibility you must learn to
accept.
12. Our Existence is AbsurdOur Existence is Absurd
This means that we
can give no logical
sense or purpose to
life – There is none
to be found.
13. Truth is SubjectiveTruth is Subjective
This means that what is true for one
person might not be true for
another.
14. Then what?
Okay, thanks to Descartes, we know we exist.
To understand what Existentialism says
about existence, think of the types of
things a person might believe
influences or controls their
existence….
15. Such as….
• An Interactive God
• Fate
• Astrology
• Murphy’s Law (& other laws)
• Grandmother’s axioms
• Human nature
• Pre-destination
• Freud’s sub-conscious mind
16. Then, imagine the universe without
any of these!
That’s the Existential view of reality!
Existentialism says there is nothing that
explains, guides or gives purpose to our
existence.
In short – you EXIST (have “BEING”) in total
FREEDOM surrounded by NOTHINGNESS.
17. Sartre on existentialism:
Man can will nothing unless he
has first understood that he
must count no one but himself;
that he is alone, abandoned on
earth in the midst of his
infinite responsibilities,
without help, with no other
aim than the one he sets
himself, with no other destiny
than the one he forges for
himself on this earth.
(Being and Nothingness, 1943)
18.
19.
20.
21. AbsurdismAbsurdism
• The belief that nothing
can explain or
rationalize human
existence.
• There is no answer to
“Why am I?”
• Humans exist in a
meaningless, irrational
universe and any search
for order will bring
them into direct conflict
with this universe.
22. GEORGIO DE CHIRICO
Love Song
It was during the
Second World War,
when Europe found
itself in a crisis
faced with death
and destruction,
that the existential
movement began to
flourish,
popularized in
France in the
1940s.
23. METAPHYSICS
Existence Precedes Essence
– Thrown into meaningless world
– Find our own meaning = essence
State of Becoming
– Think & decide for yourself what you
will become
– Self-actualization
Live Life to the Fullest
24. Existential Moment
• Puberty – Selfhood – place in
world
• Realize “self” in a world of
“selfs”
• Responsibility for ourselves is
ours
• Can’t rely on anyone else to take
responsibility for us.
25. REALITY
• Final Reality resides within you
• You are the center of your own universe
• Reality lies within you
• You are in charge
• Reality is centered in yourself
26.
27. Choice making and freedom
• Plan what you want to become, but must
consider…
• Consequences for our choices
• OK to fail
• Without failure no happiness or ecstasy
• No unhappiness, no way to know happiness
28. Choice & Freedom
• Resist losing oneself in a group
– Lose freedom
• Resist giving right of choice or
freedom away to someone else
– Making decisions for you
– Never reach your essence
29. Helping Relationships
Role of people (those around us)
– Help you to become what you are capable of
being
– “I will help you succeed, but you possess your
own answers.”
– Facilitator
31. BEING IN ITSELF
• Things that have a predetermined
existence
• Something just is what it is
• Just the way it appears to be
• Fact
32. BEING FOR ITSELF
Live a life that is chosen
Recognize mortality
Awareness = pain & conflict
joy & happiness
Need to become what we are capable of
becoming
Process of giving life meaning
35. Relationship
• “I” -- Object
– BEING IN ITSELF
– Objectify, fact
• “I” -- Subject
– BEING FOR ITSELF
– I’m OK, You’re OK
• “Hell is when other people try to
objectify me instead of subjectify me.”
- Sartre
36. Truth
• How do we learn knowledge?
• How do we know what we know?
• Knowledge must be subjectified
• Knowledge created from our own meaning
• We must:
– Help people find meaning – subjectify
– Give freedom & choice
37.
38. Existential Nothingness
• Existence
• Non-existence
• Coping with existence and non-existence
at the same time
– Increases sensitivity
– Height of creativity
– Open to everything in nothingness
39. LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKELIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE
OF ITOF IT
• Bury your head
• Give away your choices
OR
• Face reality
• Become what you can become
Do everything you can today because there may not
be tomorrow.
40. Axiology
Ethics
Decide options & consequences
NO GUILT
Battered & Real life “knocks”
Coping mechanisms
Toughen up
Never talk badly about yourself
41. Ethics
Values
– No absolutes
– Freedom of choice
– Existential Moment
• Values based on you
• Consequences
• Can’t rely on anyone but ourselves
– You have to think of the consequences of
your choices
42. Ethics
Religion
– Strong camp believe in
Supreme Being
– “as if” – Live life as if there is a
Supreme Being
– Individual and personal God
– Can’t force anyone else to
believe, but I can choose to
believe
44. Choice and CommitmentChoice and Commitment
• Humans have freedom to choose.
• Each individual makes choices that create his
or her own nature.
• Because we choose, we must accept risk and
responsibility for wherever our commitments
take us.
• “A human being is absolutely free and
absolutely responsible. Anguish is the result.” –
Jean-Paul Sartre
46. Dread and AnxietyDread and Anxiety
• Dread is a feeling of general
apprehension. Kierkegaard interpreted it
as God’s way of calling each individual to
make a commitment to a personally valid
way of life.
• Anxiety stems from our understanding
and recognition of the total freedom of
choice that confronts us every moment,
and the individual’s confrontation with
nothingness.
50. • Death hangs over all of us. Our
awareness of it can bring freedom or
anguish.
• I am my own existence. Nothing
structures my world.
• “Nothingness is our inherent lack of self. We
are in constant pursuit of a self. Nothingness is
the creative well-spring from which all human
possibilities can be realized.” –Jean-Paul Sartre
Nothingness and DeathNothingness and Death
51.
52. EDGAR DEGAS
“L’absinthe” (1876)
Alienation orAlienation or
EstrangementEstrangement
• From all other
humans
• From human
institutions
• From the past
• From the future
• We only exist right now,
right here.
54. Edward Hopper “New York Movie” (1939)
Human SubjectivityHuman Subjectivity
“I will be what I choose to be.”
It is impossible to transcend
human subjectivity.
“There are no true connections
between people.”
My emotions are yet another
choice I make. I am
responsible for them.
55. Existentialism
• Choice & freedom
• Accept Responsibility
• Consequences are important
• No guilt
• You have to make the best of life
• Therapy is good to learn about yourself
• Nothingness
• Anxiety
• Not judgmental
56. All existentialists are concerned with the study of being or
ontology.
TO REVIEW: An existentialist believes that a person’s life
is nothing but the sum of the life he has shaped for
himself. At every moment it is always his own free will
choosing how to act. He is responsible for his actions,
which limit future actions. Thus, he must create a
morality in the absence of any known predetermined
absolute values. God does not figure into the equation,
because even if God does exist, He does not reveal to
men the meaning of their lives. Honesty with oneself is
the most important value. Every decision must be weighed
in light of all the consequences of that action.
Life is absurd, but we engage it!
57. GEORGIA O’KEEFFE
Sky Above White Clouds I (1962)
Human existence cannot be captured by
reason or objectivity –– it must include
passion, emotion and the subjective.
Each of us is responsible for
everything and to every
human being.
–Simone de Beauvoir
58. Some FamousSome Famous
ExistentialistsExistentialists
• Søren Kierkegaard
(1813-1855)
• Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844-1900)
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-
1980)
• Albert Camus (1913-
1960)
“A woman is not born…she
is created.”
de Beauvoir’s most famous text is
The Second Sex (1949), which some
claim is the basis for current
gender studies.
59. Nietzsche and Nihilism
“Every belief, every
considering something-true is
necessarily false because there
is simply no true world.
Nihilism is…not only the
belief that everything deserves
to perish; but one actually puts
one’s shoulder to the plow;
one destroys. For some time
now our whole European
culture has been moving as
toward a catastrophe, with a
tortured tension that is
growing from decade to
decade: restlessly, violently,
headlong, like a river that
wants to reach the end… .”
(Will to Power)
Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth
60. Albert Camus dissociated himself
from the existentialists but
acknowledged man’s lonely condition
in the universe. His “man of the
absurd” (or absurd hero) rejects
despair and commits himself to the
anguish and responsibility of living as
best he can.
Basically, man creates himself through the choices he makes.
There are no guides for these choices, but he has to make them
anyway, which renders life absurd.
61. “You will never be happy if
you continue to search for
what happiness consists of.
You will never live if you are
looking for the meaning of
life.”
“It was previously a question of finding out
whether or not life had to have a meaning to be
lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary,
that it will be lived all the better if it has no
meaning.”
