Existentialism

Hello readers ! I write this blog as a part of thinking activity assigned by Dilip Barad sir, English Department MKBU. This blog is about Existentialism: Flipped Learning. In this task, we have to refer to the videos based on Existentialism and Flipped class and write our responses to the Questions. So firstly we will briefly discussed that what is existentialism?

Existentialism:

Existentialism is the philosophical belief we are each responsible for creating purpose or meaning in our own lives. Our individual purpose and meaning is not given to us by Gods, governments, teachers or other authorities. Irvin Yalom says that the four 'death, meaning, isolation, and freedom' these are the basis for the field existentialism. The roots of existentialism as a philosophy began with the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard was intensely interested in man's relationship with God, and its ultimate impossibility.

 

First video is about "What is existentialism?" In this video Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism; he refers to himself as an existentialist. Kierkegard is a first existentialist, he is also referred to as the first existentialist. Kierkegard, Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Sartre, Shestov, Heidegger, Hesse, Beuvoir - these are the most famous existentialists whose views are different from one another in some way. For all of them philosophical thinking and existing begin with each thinking subject. Individuality, passions and freedom are the three sides of thinking. In this video we also heard about religious belief and belief in God in questionable manner. Believing in God is philosophical suside for Kamus. Existentialism presents subjects like freedom,anguish, absurdity, passions, emotions - that's why It's mainly popular among young people.

In the next video we learn about the 'Myth of Sisyphus'. 'The Myth of Sisyphus' is a 1942 philosophical essay by Albert Camus. In French 'Le mythe de Sisyphe'. Camus says that "There is but one serious philosophical problem and that is suicide." He focuses on the suiside from begging for Camus suiside is the individual act.

 

Here in this video there is also an example of the movie 'Stay' in which we can see ‘suicide is divorce between man and this life’ 'Death is Mistress'. 

"I am taking the library at this point of calling the existential attitude philosophical suside".

                     -Albert Camus 

This video talks about Absurdism. The absurd is not in man and not in the world, it can only occur in the presence together. philosophical suicide and this problem come out from a total absence of hope, A continual rejection and conscious dissatisfaction. From this method people escaped from absurd life. This video also talked about rationality. If something happens wrong in life - religious people believe that there is reason behind it but for absurd people reason is useless and there is nothing beyond reason. We also learn about Leap of faith and abstract leapers, taking the leap is easy and there is nothing dangerous in it.  

This video talks about the Dadaism movement. Fountain is one of Duchamp's most famous works and is widely seen as an icon of twentieth-century art. The original, which is lost, consisted of a standard urinal, usually presented on its back for exhibition purposes rather than upright, and was signed and dated 'R. Mutt 1917'. 

Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. This moment is against World War. The speaker tells us that Existentialism emerged after World War II. Dadaism is Creation is the primary goal of Dadaism. Some people connect Dadaism with Nihilism. Dadaism and Nihilism have nothing to do with each other, there is only one similarity that both are fed up with arbitrary values of life.

Existentialism as a gloomy philosophy:

In this video the speaker says that Existentialism is not a narcissist philosophy it talks about becoming who you are not love yourself. Existentialism is differ from Nihilism. Every human faces anxiety, despair and absurdity in life but they are free to choose their own path of living. 

Are Existentialism and Nihilism the same thing ?

"All suside have the responsibility of fighting against the temptations against suside".

             -Hermann Hesse

Kamus believes that rebellion is the only proper response to the absurdity of life and he wrote 'The Myth of Sisyphus' and 'The Rebel' Existentialism and Nihilism are totally different from each other. According to Kierkegard Nihilism is loss of individuality. For Nietzsche Nihilism means the highest values devalue themselves.

In this video we learn more deeply about the movement Existentialism like who started the moment and also the brief history of this moment. Existentialism asks the question of existence: why am I here? What is life? Existentialism sees life from religiously, scientifically and philosophically and raises questions about human existence. 

"Existence precedes Essence"

          -Sartre

The speaker also talks about the famous quote of Sartre. For Sartre humans are fundamentally different from things like cars, watches or phones.

This video explains the meaning of Existentialism to 5 year old childs. Here we could find the definition of existentialism with the reference of Nietzsche and his 'Ubermensch'. Nietzsche's Existentialism talked about that human being is everything, there is no need for any supernatural power to govern life. Like God is dead so human beings can make their own rules and be like superman or ubermensch.

Existentialism is a rebellious way of thinking about life. This video is based on the personal experience of speaker himself. He likes existentialism because it appeals to our mind, heart and soul. He shares that if one keeps on looking at things rationally then life takes away the magic of things. He says that there are many ways to understand life like Phenomenology, Buddhism and Humanistic psychology and also Christianity and scientific cosmology. He also give some suggestions for how to apply existential attitude in our daily life. Ask questions, live a life passionately always remember that you are human - you are born in an amazing univers. Existentialism is a way of life and understanding life deeply.

In This video speaker talks about Essentialism. video starts with one question that 'What gives your life meaning? Plato and Aristotle believed that everything has an essence including us and they believed that our essences exist in us before we're even born. Existentialism is not similar with Atheism. Plenty of existentialists are atheist but some are theists like Kierkegaard. After WWII Existentialism was defined as Freedom. There is no meaning of life but meaning is given by us to our life.

After learning from this videos some questions are raising in my mind...

1) How has the myth of Sisyphus been interpreted in literature and philosophy? What is the message of the myth of Sisyphus?

2) How does existentialism apply to religion? How does existentialism deal with the concept of God and religion?

3) Can existentialism provide a guide for living a meaningful life or is it a philosophy of despair

4) How can we apply an existential attitude in our day to day life? 

5) How does the idea of philosophical suicide presents in the play 'Waiting for Godot'?

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