Existentialism

"Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principal of existentialism."

Jean Paul Sartre
Existentialism

 

"Existentialism....involves.....more what you do than what you think..."

Carl Michalson

 

You put your whole self in,

You put your whole self out;'

you put your whole self in,

And you shake it all

about.

You do the Hokey-Pokey,

and you turn yourself

around.

That's what it's all about."

-anonymous

 

"There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers."

-Erich Fromm

 

"In this view, life is absurd: it is a tale of suffering and death. Life has no objective meaning, so our days on earth are spent attempting to create meaning. We are entirely free to do so, and we are completely responsible for what we create as we fulfill our life's purpose-escape from boredom. This entire charade is conducted within a context of chaos and meaninglessness. there is no absolute moral truth; all we have are personal preferences to guide us. The futility of life is ultimately what stirs the greatest passion within us. authenticity is highly valued, but it is achieved almost exclusively by recognizing the absurdity and randomness of life. There is no god according to this outlook because a genuine deity would never create such a meaningless, hopeless, painful, and chaotic world. We pass our time alienated from all things that we imagine to be valuable and good: relationships, deity, and purpose."

-George Barna

The Seven faith Tribes

 

 

"Every true man, sir, who is a little above the level of the beasts and plants, lives so as to give a meaning and a value to his own life."

-Luigi Pirandello

 

"Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on 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."

-Jean Paul Sartre

 

"Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he habitually fails to use."

-William James

 

"Man does not simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment."

-Viktor Frankel

 

   "In spite of noble efforts on the part of our educational establishment, a liberal education has never been an adequate descriptor of what a person needs to know in order to sustain a level of authenticity far above a life of clichés, slogans, and platitudes. deep down many of us with a half-century or more of life experience know this to be true. What a person needs, in my view, is an existential education."

-Charles Hayes

September University

 

"The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs whatever, and especially of systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy as superficial, academic, and remote from life-that is the heart of existentialism."

-Walter kaufmann

Postmodernism

"This is the most commonly held worldview in the United States today. it maintains that there is no "meta- narrative" or grand story that explains life and reality or gives it purpose.
Each person has his or her own experience, which cannot be denied or rejected by anyone else; it is simply that person's understanding of reality and truth. Each person makes decisions about how to live based on feelings and experience-and because there are no absolute moral truths that can be known by humanity, nobody has the right to dismiss any of those decisions as wrong or inappropriate. Similarly, it is inappropriate to try to impose a moral point of view on people; morality is a private matter, and if a choice is deemed right by someone, it is therefore right for that person and others must be tolerant of that choice.

   To the postmodernist, life is a random series of subjective experiences, and a person's ultimate purposes are comfortable survival and personal expression. The things that matter most in life are having experiences and relationships.  Connection to groups of people is particularly important to effectively shape one's views and experiences. One may believe in the existence of God but cannot compel anyone else to do so, it's a personal choice, just like everything else."

-George Barna

The Seven Faith Tribes

 

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Book: "The Development and Meaning of Twentieth Century Existentialism" Ed. by William L. McBride

Book: "Basic Writings of Existentialism" Ed. by Gordon Marino

 

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