The following is a paper I wrote for my high school world lit. class. The assignment was to be for or agaisnt a philosophy, and so I chose Existentialism. Please feel free to critize, agree, pick apart!
A Bit of Comfort.
Existentialism is a valuable spiritual tool to one who wishes to achieve a greater understanding about themselves and existence. From careful research such as personally exercising the philosophy, and largely because the objectives of the philosophy were easy for me to comprehend, I found practicing Existentialism can lead to a greater satisfaction of ones spiritual well being in regards to the turbulent and awkward emotions one can harbor concerning their existence.
"Existence Precedes Essence"-Satuire. One must realize they exist before they began to define their existence. This can be a hard concept to grasp, or to become fully consciously aware of. Obviously, one is was aware of their physical existence, however one usually does not know how to comprehend, much less even begin to fathom a solution to the dreams they dreamt or their conscious which most chose to view as a constant mockery ringing through their mind. Some, including myself, once numbed these foreign and rather intruding feelings by altering the chemistry of the body, but eventually reality slaps one in the face as it did to me, thus now I feel as if reality is trying to hold my hand, as if I was its antidote. The interim between reality's slap and our alienation was rather lonely, however fortunately during this lonely stretch of time, I made the choice of paying attention to Paul Forester's lecture on Existentialism.
Choices and consequences define existence, and to make these choices, one must truly listen to what lies within. I am not quite sure if that bizarre feeling one usually calls a conscious, comes from chemical imbalances, environmental conditions, or the mysterious effects of global warming; however, nevertheless I have found if one listens to their conscious, there are less harsh consequences.
After researching Existentialism, I feel very fortunate to be female, because many wise people have told I me that females are much more in tuned with the forces of nature than males, and I feel that a have been able to achieve greater levels of intuition through Existentialism. Basically, Existentialism fabricated a new realm of understanding in my mind, in which I was finally able to comprehend my existence with a greater level of satisfaction and comfort. I believe Existentialism a valid philosophy.
A Bit of Comfort.
Existentialism is a valuable spiritual tool to one who wishes to achieve a greater understanding about themselves and existence. From careful research such as personally exercising the philosophy, and largely because the objectives of the philosophy were easy for me to comprehend, I found practicing Existentialism can lead to a greater satisfaction of ones spiritual well being in regards to the turbulent and awkward emotions one can harbor concerning their existence.
"Existence Precedes Essence"-Satuire. One must realize they exist before they began to define their existence. This can be a hard concept to grasp, or to become fully consciously aware of. Obviously, one is was aware of their physical existence, however one usually does not know how to comprehend, much less even begin to fathom a solution to the dreams they dreamt or their conscious which most chose to view as a constant mockery ringing through their mind. Some, including myself, once numbed these foreign and rather intruding feelings by altering the chemistry of the body, but eventually reality slaps one in the face as it did to me, thus now I feel as if reality is trying to hold my hand, as if I was its antidote. The interim between reality's slap and our alienation was rather lonely, however fortunately during this lonely stretch of time, I made the choice of paying attention to Paul Forester's lecture on Existentialism.
Choices and consequences define existence, and to make these choices, one must truly listen to what lies within. I am not quite sure if that bizarre feeling one usually calls a conscious, comes from chemical imbalances, environmental conditions, or the mysterious effects of global warming; however, nevertheless I have found if one listens to their conscious, there are less harsh consequences.
After researching Existentialism, I feel very fortunate to be female, because many wise people have told I me that females are much more in tuned with the forces of nature than males, and I feel that a have been able to achieve greater levels of intuition through Existentialism. Basically, Existentialism fabricated a new realm of understanding in my mind, in which I was finally able to comprehend my existence with a greater level of satisfaction and comfort. I believe Existentialism a valid philosophy.
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Tue, March 1, 2005 - 8:37 AMPretty cool, couple of things:
Satuire = Sartre
How long was the paper supposed to be? -
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Tue, March 1, 2005 - 12:45 PMExistentialism as a 'spiritual tool' is interesting, since many Existentialist were staunch atheists.
I think Existentialism could be read as in part an effort to salvage human value concerns from the philosophical wreckage of Christianity - witness Nietzsche, Sartre, Heidegger, Kierkegaard. None of them would have much traffic with traditional formulations of Christianity, except to lambast it in hyperbolic language.
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Wed, March 2, 2005 - 7:14 AMI was going to say something to that effect, thanks for bringing that up (the athiest thing)
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:24 PMThe term "spiritual" does not per se indicate judeo-christian theology, or, is necessarily perdicated on the notion of God. I'd say this is a Euro-ccentric bias. Atheists, they may have been, but they were unarguably philosophers intune with their spirituality. Nietzsche is perhaps the most dynamic and conspicuous in his passion and desire for life, inspite of the frequent misunderstands of nihilism. To seek the path of a just life, subjective to each individual, of course, is a spiritual endeavour. Existentialism finds many overlaping principles with that of Eastern philosophies that deeply concern the spirit. To say Existentialism is a reaction against Christian theology is one thing, but to disregard the spiritual element of this philosophy is quite another. -
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 8:12 PMJi,
I agree with you 100% that Existentialism does have a very strong spiritual element as least based on what I've read and studied. I would go so far as to say that a true Existentialist is very spiritual. To many, spirituality implies religion. For the record, one can be spiritual and not religious. And likewise, one can be religious but not spiritual.
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 9:39 AMI'm very certain that Nietzsche (who wasn't really an existentialist if you want to get technical) would say "spirituality" is just an artistic construction of human beings. You have to look 'under' Nietzsche's philosophy and see how he uses words. When he says things like "spirit" (the 'spirit of gravity', for example) he doesn't really believe there's such a thing, he's using it as a metaphore.
I'm not exactly sure how to respond to this spiritualism notion, but it sounds very Neo-Platonist to me, and I know Nietzsche would probably reject it. I'm not sure what Sartre would say. -
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 5:45 PMSure Nietzsche would reject it, there are few things that Nietzsche wouldn't reject, so I don't think that's much of a question. If you look at Nietzsche's life and the essence of his pursuit, you'd see that he acted for responsibility of individuality and the collective whole. There are many philosophers whose words are incongurous with their actions. Nietzsche has been known as a philosopher of contradictions.
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Tue, November 29, 2005 - 3:00 PMJi O:>Atheists, they may have been, but they were unarguably philosophers intune with their spirituality.
I agree that atheism doesn't preclude spirituality. I don't think it is necessary to see atheism as being inherently exclusive from other isms like pantheism, panentheism, transcendentalism, etc. Similarly, finding comfort in existentialism seems to depend on your attitude and perception of god and reality.
Ergo:>What I *perceive* is alienation is really just freedom. Once I make this shift in my understanding, I also move from despair ("I'm on my own, abandoned") to hope ("I'm free to be . . . ") Same reality, different experience of it.
This movement from despair to hope seems to rely on an developing concept of self. Something that can be meaningful in one way can be just as meaningful in an equal and opposite way. The realisation of the arbitrary nature of value and finding freedom in that rather than despair is what existentialism appears to be to me, putting ultimate value on our ability to make meaning for ourselves. To be our own gods, in a sense. Maybe after I post this I'll read over what I've written and see if I believe any of it :)
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Tue, March 1, 2005 - 1:05 PMThank you for posting. I'm interested in the following excerpt:
>I am not quite sure if that bizarre feeling one usually calls a conscious, comes from chemical imbalances, environmental conditions, or the mysterious effects of global warming; however, nevertheless I have found if one listens to their conscious, there are less harsh consequences<
I'm assuming you mean "Conscience"? If so, my guess is that an existentialist would simplify the notion of a consience as merely just the way you feel about things, rather than trying to encapsulate it into some inner being that needs to be listened to.
With that belief, (and if it is an existentialist belief) from an existentialist point of view, can a conscience ever *not* be listened to? -
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Wed, March 2, 2005 - 9:50 AMyes i suppose so, but by not listening to it, wouldn't one be denying part of their existence that could possibly, if listened to, could make a grave difference in how one defines their existence? -
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 6:32 PMkAt:
I sort of think you *can't* not listen to that voice, particularly if it represents what you feel/believe/think. But maybe you're asking whether a person should follow that voice or not, or whether that voice is the right basis on which to determine ones action.
I think you've correctly stated how a person *defines* their existence: ones action, whether based on "the voice" or some external authority or *nothing* (whatever that is), is what defines a person (if *defines* means "actualizes ones self in the view of others"). But what defines me also proscribes me, or limits me. Others see me as just-this-action-here or just-this-comment-there; but is that what "I" am?
Another question: can a person really trust "the voice" as a source for deciding action? How does one tell whether that voice is encouraging toward right action or lunacy? Kierkegaard's Fear & Trembling brings this question into relief.
Another question: if a person is stuck with "just me" to make his or her decisions (can't look at what others/authorities decided in similar circumstances), what is ones *ground*, ones basis, for what's right or wrong action? Or is right and wrong action a misunderstanding of reality? Is there such a thing as right action, or is there only action?
In other words, does it really matter what a person does? -
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Mon, March 14, 2005 - 1:29 AMI find it interesting that you choose Existentialism as a basis (or at least a foundation) for spirituality.
Existentialism is (at least in my opinion) the divorce of spirit and body, the acknowledgment of coming out of nothing, existing within nothing, and then returning to the void. If anything, existentialism is the antithesis of comfort, it is the alienation of the self.
The turbulence of existence, the separation of the conscious and the subconscious, even body/mind/soul separation - to the extent of the complete alienation of the self vs. the whole (and the whole being the components of self or society in general) is emphasized throughout the philosophy as it's main theme. It questions the worth of being, if being truly only comes down to nothing, dust to dust and the like.
"Existence Precedes Essence"-Satuire. Sartre's works focus on the opinions I stated above. His statement of 'hell is other people' and the continued physical detachment of the main character of Nausea convey a sense of the very lack of intuition that you speak of. Whether or not that is based on the gender of the protagonist I can't say. I wonder if the intuition that you speak of would apply more accurately to Jungian philosophy, tapping into the collection archetype of humanity? As for 'existence precedes essence', well, I suppose the very essence of existentialism is the search for existence, and to each his own, or whateva's cleva? Each individual is fully capable of the thought process involved in decision making and the allowance of outside influence, so whether or not one uses those choices to shape their existence is yet another step in the search - and whether or not to acknowledge the search.
Spirituality within the philosophy could be interpreted loosely. Nietsche stated 'God is dead', in reference to the dissipation of morality within Christianity. To apply existentialism to the intuitive aspects of feminity almost contradicts what you are saying in your essay, considering the sense of detachment the theory provokes. 'Hell is other people' hardly conveys a feeling of unity or spirituality.
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Mon, March 14, 2005 - 7:41 PM>>If anything, existentialism is the antithesis of comfort, it is the alienation of the self. <<
I think it might start out as an experience of alienation but I don't think it has to remain there; the experience can resolve itself and, in so doing, although it may not provide comfort, still might give a sort of calm.
"Hell is other people" seems to be very close to Sartre's comments in Nausea about experiencing others & other things as "de trop" or "in the way". I bump into stuff (especially in the suburbs!) and I experience others as a boundary to my unfettered expression of self - which is hell.
When I consider the guy in Nausea freaking out about the tree root and getting all dizzy once the categories and Platonic forms that *describe* the tree root fall away, and there's just being, this-thing-here, pre-category, sitting in front of him . . . I'm not so sure he's experiencing himself as alienated from it as he is unable to *explain* it. The thing that freaks him out is that things don't *make sense*, the whatness of the thing can't be quantified, there is no "essence" (specific attributes *inherent* in the thing), simply this-thing-here, pre-essence.
That's disturbing.
But if it's true for the tree root, it's true for me as well. But if "I" have no inherent attributes, then nothing defines (or pre-defines) me. So my being (who I am) is free (undefined or not-pre-defined).
That's liberating.
That's why I think existentialism offers a valid answer to how I can be free in a determined universe (whether it's heading nowhere or heading somewhere doesn't matter). Yes, I'm "on my own" and can't rely on authority, or history, or anything else to make my choice. And yes, I originally experience my on-my-ownness as if I'm alienated, but then I discover that what I'm experience isn't alienation but rather the core of freedom.
Alienation implies I've been separated from something I was, but if "I" am not anything in particular, then I can't really be alienated (it's an illusion). What I *perceive* is alienation is really just freedom. Once I make this shift in my understanding, I also move from despair ("I'm on my own, abandoned") to hope ("I'm free to be . . . ") Same reality, different experience of it.
That's why Sartre's key term in most of his writing becomes "project", to cast myself forward or into. Pynchon brings the same thought forward in The Crying of Lot 49 when Oedipa asks: Shall I project a universe?
I'm free, but now I'm *obligated* as a consequence of my freedom; that is, I can't just sit there but am bound to project, to create, to step into the undefined. And this forward motion takes courage.
And hope, courage, freedom - these are characteristics of a spirit, not of a body. So in this context (and only here), I agree there's a level of spirituality in the existential two-step.
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Tue, March 15, 2005 - 10:21 PMby spirituality, i meant a way of coping with one's existence.
Thank u 4 ur words, they r very useful + clever put.
have ne of u all read naked lunch -
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Tue, March 15, 2005 - 10:23 PMo one thing i should have mentioned about this essay, i wrote it after reading DEMAIN, by herman hesse, have ne u all read that book? what did u think of it
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Wed, March 16, 2005 - 3:48 PMI read Naked Lunch a really long time ago, 10 years or so. It's on my reread list though. I never much got into any of the beat writers though. -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Thu, March 17, 2005 - 12:09 AMwell, a lot of them are dead. But by beat writer, the genre/era of writers like Burroughs. Kerouc, Salinger, Bukowski - those guys. There are a number of them, Allen Gingsburg (sp?), the list goes on. They were the 'beatniks', the train hopping alcoholics and dope addicts of mid 20th century.
I've read some of their work, and was never able to get into it. They're all great American epics, I think Hunter S Thompson was probably influenced by them, the American dream - or nightmare, depending on who you ask - but in I was never really able to relate to them. I always found them a bit dry, even though the stories were great, I just never liked the actual articulation I suppose. It always seemed a bit testsoterone (again, sp?) fueled.
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Thu, March 17, 2005 - 12:14 AMwww.litkicks.com/BeatPages/page.jsp
that's a decent little description of the genre. The Beats have always sorta conjured images of tiny, dark smokey cheap hotel rooms with a typewriter and no windows, bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, and an anguished artist waiting for a muse - almost the same way Nina Simone does. -
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Thu, March 17, 2005 - 10:17 PMdo you find that most brillance comes from madness? for example, bach, mozart and the other musicians, artists, and poets who were and are still being inspired by their struggles on the dark side with drugs n alcohol. what kind of mind altering substance inspires you to be creative? or does creativity purely come from nessecity?(sp?!)
p.s. I never won a spelling bee -
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Thu, March 17, 2005 - 11:01 PMMadness and brilliance are very broad terms. In some sense, yes, I think they could be synonymous. Look at autism - many autistic patients are incredibly gifted in one area, typically something to do with math (and music, but the two are one in the same).
But they are subjective terms. What one finds as brilliant another may find as ignorant, vice versa. Same applies to madness. I don't know that chemical influences necessarily directly contribute to that. Granted, many artists (and philosophers, etc.) have had their affairs with substance use and misuse, just like anyone else. I don't buy into any of the 'I'm only creative when I'm high'. I do believe that mind altering substances can contribute to the process, but it's there before and after the high and the hangover have laid to rest. It's just a matter of acknowledging it. It's just chemicals reactions, the same as the brain producing it's seratonin and it's melatonin and it making you blink your eyes.
I stopped doing drugs a long time ago. I didn't want or need them anymore. Now, I occasionally drink, but I don't use anything to inspire me. Who knows though, maybe a hit of good acid will give me a good kick in the ass and make me finish that painting that's been leaning against my wall for the last 2 months. Or maybe not. As for creativity being birthed from necessity, I think so. It's a driving force, keeps things going. Our dear depraved artists and thinkers did what they did and made what they did and wrote what they did because they had to, do not pass go, do not collect $200. The process of thought can be unbearably heavy, and perhaps that's the madness/brilliance of it all.
From an existentialist standpoint, maybe the substance helps to cope with the burden of existing within nothing. Drugs create an alternate to the reality constructed around us, even if it's fleeting or falsified. -
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Unsu...
Re: A bit of Comfort
Fri, March 18, 2005 - 9:56 AMAustistics rock, I had a crush on this austic boy in elementary skool because he never ceased to amazes me with his photographic memory + caculator 4 a brain, + his alien discription of situations + people that seemed create a picture in my head of a wierd species of souless zombie like creatures who ran out of creativity.
I hear ya on not being into the whole 'I'm only creative when I'm high' senario, I think an untouched human mind is a wonderous thing, althought they r rare these dayz. (just like virgins!)
So how do you apply + practice existentialim in your life? -
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Re: A bit of Comfort
Fri, March 18, 2005 - 3:06 PMI wait until all the good people are asleep and dreaming.
Then I go in and rearrange.
-f.
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