1. Existentialism

2. “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”
--Albert Camus
Author of The Stranger

3. Existentialism
Existence precedes essence
“What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself”
-Jean Paul Sartre

4. Existentialism Nuts and Bolts
Core tenets of existentialism:
Life has no inherent meaning or grand purpose
The universe is ultimately unfeeling and unknowable
The meaning of life is individual
Mankind is the measure of all things
Freedom is unlimited: we can never NOT choose
Human beings are indeterminate, ambiguous beings in constant process of becoming and change
We are solely responsible for ourselves and our past
For existentialists, striving for authenticity is an ideal goal

5. Existentialism Existence precedes essence.
Our consciousness is not a fixed object
There is no absolute/predetermined value, morality, meaning
We as people do not have value assigned to us from a god, community, or belief system
The individual must create value, morality, meaning for himself

6. Existentialism: Choice and Commitment
Humanity’s primary distinction (from everything else, you could say), is the freedom to choose
Human beings do not have a fixed nature, or essence, as other animals and plants do; each human being makes choices that create his or her own nature
Must accept responsibility
We are continually “becoming”

7. Being and Nothingness
“None of us are fixed entities like tables or stones, but indeterminate, ambiguous beings in constant process of becoming and change. We are all free and can't stop being free. We are all responsible for our actions and our lives are burdened with desire, guilt and anxiety, especially anxiety about what other people think about us. This leads us to suffer such bothersome emotions as guilt, shame, and embarrassment. And, if all this isn’t terrible enough, we are doomed to die from the moment we are born into a meaningless universe where there is no God, or at least a very elusive one. Amazingly, despite this tale of woe, existentialism is ultimately a positive and optimistic philosophy! (Gary Cox, The Existentialist’s Guide, 7).

8. Being, or Being-in-itself, or Undifferentiated Being=THE WORLD
What there is fundamentally, according to Sartre, is not the universe of diverse and complex phenomena that we perceive all around us, but being-in-itself.
Being-in-itself simply is
Undifferentiated being—has no characteristics; it has no parts, contrasts, divisions, peaks, valleys, etc.
It is not spatial--not a landscape or room
It is self-sufficient, uncreated, and unchanging
It is not temporal (has no past, present, future)
Another way to think of it is the physical world and all of its (unconscious) stuff

9. Non-being, Being-for-itself, or Nothingness=CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness is a negation of being-in-itself
It is a nothingness or a non-being
We exist because we are a denial of being
We are the OPPOSITE of being
Being-for-itself is to be a conscious, knowing entity that perceives nothing-in-itself temporally and spatially
It is our consciousness

10. “There are particular things, like tables and stones, and there is nothing beyond the series of particular things other than consciousness, which is nothing more than consciousness of particular things”
—Gary Cox
Author of The Existentialist’s Guide to Death, the Universe and Nothingness

11. Good faith vs. Bad faith
At the heart of existentialism is the concept of good faith and bad faith
Good Faith
Bad Faith
Abandons idea of a purposeful universe
Abandons illusions while striving for authenticity
Honest with oneself
Does not “reveal” to other men or women the meaning of their lives
Creates his or her own morality in the absence of any known predetermined absolute values
Judges a potential action by estimating the result as if everyone were to perform it
Chooses to actively engage life
Believes that the universe is meaningful and that he or she has a predetermined, fated value: essence before existence
Accepts illusions
Does not take responsibility for his or her own actions
Deliberately hypocritical
Tries to use the excuse of “good intentions” to escape responsibility of his or her actions
Considers only him or herself (or a few) when carrying out an action
Withdraws from life

12. Authenticity Authenticity is the holy grail of existentialism
It means with be fully aware that you are not a fixed thing like a table or chair
You are a free being responsible for your choices
You are brave, unselfish, and original
You see life for what it is and build your life on an understanding and acceptance of how things really are

13. The Absurd
Life is absurd and has no inherent meaning; there is no grand purpose to our being here
People are subject to intense psychological and physical burdens
Camus compares life to the myth of Sisyphus and even entitles one of his philosophical works after it (published a year after The Stranger)
(Listen to podcast)

14. Questions
1) According to Camus, in what way is suicide the only important philosophical question? Explain your answer. 2) In your own words, describe the absurdity of life (as Camus describes it) and explain what it means to live in an absurd world. 3) Despite the absurdity of life, how might one achieve happiness?

15. Camus 3 options when facing the absurd
Suicide
Philosophical suicide
Embrace absurdity

16. Albert Camus Quote
“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

17. 6 ways we encounter the absurd
First, he describes the experience of feeling the void and sincerely replying nothing when asked "what one is thinking" [...]. [T]hen it is as it were the first sign of absurdity" (12).

18. 6 ways we encounter the absurd
Second, he describes mechanical living, the deadening repetition of daily work, because it fosters an onrush of futility; yet the "why" arises one day and consciousness awakens.

19. 6 ways we encounter the absurd
Third, a person may become aware of time passing by and thus living for the future. Again this is the divorce between an individual and his or her worldly fate; people are caught in time and this makes no sense.

20. 6 ways we encounter the absurd
Fourth, the absurd may be experienced because nature is indifferent to people, making the world seem strange, dense, or foreign even if familiar objects are perceived. We are solitary in a world with which we have nothing in common.

21. 6 ways we encounter the absurd
Likewise this is evident when there is an acute feeling of isolation between ourselves and others; we are bewildered when we perceive other human beings as nonhuman.

22. 6 ways we encounter the absurd
And finally, there is the fact of death and the emotional response it evokes in us. It is inexplicable and makes no sense. We want to endure in life, but all people are nevertheless mortal.