Journal Topic - Option 1 What aspects of your identity do you think are most significant? What do you think makes us who we are? That is— who, what, how, do we become ourselves? Provide specific examples that support your answer. Journal Topic - Option 2 Define authentic and inauthentic actions. Differentiate between the two, and then give at least one specific example for each concept to support your explanation.

EXISTENTIALISM A complex philosophy emphasizing the absurdity of reality and the human responsibility to make choices and accept consequences! ANDREW WYETH Christina’s World (1948)

Big Ideas of Existentialism Despite encompassing a huge range of philosophical, religious, and political ideologies, the underlying concepts of existentialism are simple… MARK ROTHKO Untitled (1968)

Existence Precedes Essence Cogito ergo sum. Existence Precedes Essence 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).

Big Ideas of Existentialism Existence Before Essence Reason (logic and purpose) is important Alienation/Estrangement Fear/Anxiety Encounter with Nothingness Freedom

Absurdism 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.

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. GEORGIO DE CHIRICO Love Song https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIAhZapW4wYApVIsnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByZWc0dGJtBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMQ--?p=Giorgio+De+Chirico+Love+Song+Explanation&vid=e1ba8d237fa44d5492cd72e694de7c16&turl=http%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOVP.Ve87557b6240d868e26f926af578a1a4b%26pid%3D15.1%26h%3D225%26w%3D300%26c%3D7%26rs%3D1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dd_yh0rruFg4&tit=Giorgio+De+Chirico&c=0&h=225&w=300&l=140&sigr=11bdp1dca&sigt=10i6lhufk&sigi=1316m26oj&age=1185196642&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=yhs-mozilla-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla&tt=b

Choice 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. The recognition of our choices making us who we are can result in dread and anxiety. “A human being is absolutely free and absolutely responsible. Anguish is the result.” –Jean-Paul Sartre

Dread and Anxiety MAN RAY Les Larmes (Tears) Artist: Man Ray Completion Date: 1932 Style: Dada Genre: photo Technique: photography Gallery: Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA Looking almost like a film still, this cropped photograph demonstrates Man Ray's interest in cinematic narrative. The model's eyes and mascara-coated lashes are looking upward, invoking the viewers to wonder where she's looking and what is the source of her distress. The piece was created soon after the artist's break-up with his assistant and lover, Lee Miller. Ray created multiple works in an attempt to "break her up" as a revenge on a lover who left him (similar to Indestructible Object). The model is in fact not a real woman but a fashion mannequin with glass bead tears on the cheeks. Here, again, Man Ray is exploring his interest in the real and unreal by challenging the meaning of still-life photograph MAN RAY Les Larmes (Tears)

Nothingness and Death EDVARD MUNCH Night in Saint Cloud (1890)

Nothingness I am my own existence. Nothing structures my world. “Nothingness is our inherent lack of [a prescribed] 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

Alienation or Estrangement From all other humans From human institutions From the past From the future We only exist right now, right here. EDGAR DEGAS “L’absinthe” (1876)

Edward Hopper “New York Movie” (1939) Human 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. Edward Hopper “New York Movie” (1939)

Authenticity vs. Inauthenticity Authenticity defines a condition on self-making: do I succeed in making myself, or will who I am merely be a function of the roles I find myself in? To be authentic can also be thought as a way of being autonomous. The inauthentic person, in contrast, merely occupies such a role, and may do so "irresolutely," without commitment.

Each of us is responsible for everything and to every human being. 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 GEORGIA O’KEEFFE Sky Above White Clouds I (1962)

Pair and Share: What is the basic gist of Existential philosophy? What parts are still cloudy for you? What parts are you buying? What parts are you selling? Why? 4. Consider how it is already a part of your beliefs or how it conflicts with your beliefs.

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!

Some Famous Existentialists 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.

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

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.

“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.”

Nothing