EXISTENTIALISM
The Theater of the Absurd
Who are we?
Why are we?
Who Are We?
• the establishment of a personal sense of
"being" -- or, as it's more commonly
referred to today, an "identity.”
• How do we “exist”?
• A sense of identity is created socially as
much as it is internally. One essential for
its establishment is that others take you
seriously.
• What is this saying about identity – “The
problem the Dr Pepper guy has is signaled
by Santa Claus: people think what he
stands for (a diet soda with great flavor) is
a laughable myth.”
Existentialism
How do you define yourself?
• 20th century philosophy which focuses on
the individual and his/her existence.
• Existentialists believe that we are defined
by our actions.
• It is not how we are wired, or our gene
pool that defines us; it is our individual
actions and choices that tell others who
we truly are!
Existentialism
• Existentialist thought states that we must
live life passionately and sincerely in spite
of obstacles like despair, angst, absurdity,
alienation and boredom
Existentialism
• Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard is
considered the father of Existentialism.
• “The thing is to find a truth which is true for
me, to find an idea for which I can live and
die.”
• The individual is responsible for giving life
meaning
3 tenants of Existentialism:
Jean Paul Sartre (sar-truh)
Prominent French Existentialist writer;wrote; Being and
Nothingness (1943) influenced by Kierkegaard
Who I am precedes who I become, or am perceived
to be. People living inauthentic lives – consider
themselves as an “essence” (a fixed entity, they play
act a “part”.)
•
Example of the waiter, who is living a life defined by his
occupation,(social class, racial group, etc.) prevents himself from rising
above his physical position & realizing humanness (limiting his
experience)
First tenant of Existentialism:
Existence before essence
• No such thing as a “victim” of circumstance
• An existentialist believes that one chooses their own
“consciousness” of being, living in the here and now
• Hope is not part of the existentialist’s understanding, a
true existentialist accepts & experiences life as it comes
• One chooses how he will live, does not “hope” for better
days or “after life”
• Even when imprisoned one has choice: submit to rule,
negotiate, act complicity, resist non-violently, or counter
attack
• As he gets smaller and smaller, common
household creatures -- cats and spiders -turn into horrific monsters. But as the
movie progresses, he becomes too small
for even them to see (or torment). Then his
problems grow more philosophical. As he
faces the prospect of becoming as tiny as a
molecule, or even an atom, he wonders
whether, since living things can no longer
recognize him, he even still exists.
nd
2
tenant of Existentialism:
Alienation
• People are alone and adrift in the world without
meaning, or direction;“I am a rock . . . I am an
Island” (Paul Simon) Man lives in a quiet
isolation
• Born alone; die alone
• Only by ourselves (in our own conscious minds)
can we identify who we are; freedom to find our
true selves/make our choices
rd
3
tenant of Existentialism:
Encounter with Nothingness
• Each of us exists in a condition of nothingness,
which allows for free consciousness of being
• We transcend the nothingness when we take on
a project/mission that will give meaning to our
lives.
Live Together/Die Alone
• When Jack chooses to move past the
hopelessness of the situation, he takes on
the “mission” of leading and thus finds
meaning through the nothingness.