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What is existentialism?

Dissecting Existentialism

By Julian DiepPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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What is existentialism?
Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash

It is, perhaps, a challenge to try and define existentialism, as the definition may vary depending on who you ask. There have been many philosophers throughout the centuries that shared their views and thoughts on this subject, some of them differed, but they all had one thing in common: hunger for answers.

\Existentialism is an argument against essentialism, it argues that we all have the freedom to choose what to do with our lives and that we don’t come into the world with a predetermined purpose. It is the movement that tried to make sense of human existence, which particularly got a big audience during the 20th century, after the second world war.

After the Nazis and all the terrors that people survived during the war, it was very hard to believe anymore that there was a God, or at least that he wasn’t indifferent. So, works like those of Jean-Paul Sartre and his colleagues became very popular among individuals looking to make sense out of life.

What is essentialism?

Existentialism comes into being when an individual discards the predetermined answers given by society, like the assumption that we all have an essence, or that we are all born with a purpose or destiny to fulfill.

Ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato believed that everything has an essence, a set of core properties that are necessary for a thing to be what it is. A knife, for example, what makes it a knife is that it has a blade, it doesn’t matter if it has a plastic or wooden handle, as long as it has a blade. Without the blade, it wouldn’t be a knife anymore.

In the same way, they believed that every human being comes into being with an essential property that defines who they are, and what their purpose is, even before they are born.

Plato and Aristotle thought that adhering to your essence is what makes you a good human being. Some people still accept this view, even more so, they also think that denying your essence is morally wrong, like a doctor with great talent that could save many lives but denies being a doctor because they don’t like the job.

Arguments against essentialism

Unsurprisingly, many philosophers started to challenge the essentialist’s view, like the famous Frederick Nietzsche who embraced nihilism, arguing that life is ultimately meaningless, or Albert Camus, who said that the only true philosophical question is whether we should commit suicide or not, he thought that it doesn’t matter what you are doing with your life as long as it prevents you from killing yourself.

How does existentialism begin?

As Robert Solomon says, “the existential attitude begins with a disoriented individual facing a confused world that he cannot accept.” Basically, the need to make sense out of existence is what resulted in the birth of existentialism.

In other words, when you recognize how (in Jordan Peterson’s words) corrupt and chaotic the world is, you begin to ask yourself why it is that way, then, through logical thinking and asking the same questions again and again, you realize that this is an unresolvable problem, yet you resist this and keep trying to make sense out of it.

This is what Albert Camus called the absurd, the need for human beings to find meaning in an ultimately meaningless world.

This may all sound very depressing and rough, which, in part, is why many have tried to find a solution to the existential problem before. However, we have the freedom to choose what to believe, and we can accept the fact that there’s no absolute meaning while neglecting it and creating our own. After all, meaning is a human concept, which is not present in the physical world.

Alan Watts’s Theory

If you believe that you run from the maternity ward to the crematory, and that’s it, then you might as well just commit suicide.

“You only go on if the game is worth the candle.” – Alan Watts

The game is worth the candle only if you believe in a satisfactory theory of the universe.

I choose to believe in Watts’s theory about the universe being an organism, rather than a mechanism because it makes more sense to live that way. I won’t get into details because it would take too long to explain, but if you are interested in his theory I’ll leave a link below so that you can watch.

Skip to the part where he proposes the idea of “the universe as a drama,” this is the only reasonable and optimistic theory that I’ve found which made me content after trying to make sense out of life and existence for years.

psychology
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