Philosophy Web Quest: Existence or Essence?
*Special Note: You will be completing this Webquest by editing this document with your notes
and saving the file with your last name. You teacher will tell you if he/she would like you to
print it out.
Much of the information needed to complete this assignment can be found at
http://www.dividingline.com/private/Philosophy/RealmofExistentialismbyKat
harenaEiermann.shtml
1. Existentialism—defined
2. 6 themes of existentialism:
 Conscious existence
 Anguish/anxiety = human existence
 Absurdity
 Nothingness
 Death
 Alienation
3. Major Themes:
 Moral Individualism
 Subjectivity
 Choice & Commitment
 Dread & Anxiety
4. Problems of Existentialism:
 Man & Human Relations (2 people)
 Significance of Being (2 people)
 Problems of Existentialist Theology (2 people)
Working Vocabulary:
on·tol·o·gy n.
The branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being.
phe·nom·e·nol·o·gy n.
1. A philosophy or method of inquiry based on the premise that reality consists
of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human consciousness and
not of anything independent of human consciousness.
2. A movement based on this, originated about 1905 by Edmund Husserl.
ex·is·ten·tial·ism n.
A chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but
centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the
plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for his acts of free will
without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad. Existence
precedes essence.
The Task
Overview: You are going to be researching the resources listed below to learn about
existentialism and theism. The goal here is development of knowledge and
understanding, so take great notes to demonstrate those qualities. (8 points)
What we are after:
Evidence of understanding of the concepts presented
Synthesis of your understanding concerning theism and existentialism
Ideas that you may agree with
Ideas that you may disagree with
Questions you have
Note: There are three parts to the quest: Existentialism,
Theism, and Personal Response Quotes
Part I: Existentialism
Begin your research by taking notes about existentialism, what it is and is not?
Who is behind the concept and how do they explain it? 4 points.
The Scream
What does this painting, The Scream by Edward Munch, have to do with
Kafka?
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/munc
h.scream.jpg
Everything You Wanted to Know About Existentialism but Were
Afraid to Ask
Overview of existentialism and existential philosophers. Click on a name and
link to quotes. This site is extensive. Kafka is here; Sartre, too – but don't stop
there!
http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/
Some ideas to guide your explorations here: The individual defines everything...Do
you find this possible?...We define our own meanings and they are temporary...We are
rational and the universe is irrational...To what extent can you debate this or not?...We
can relate to others only on an experiential level – shared experiences such as fear of
death, etc....What are some shared experiences?... Is the human condition a shared
experience?
Sartre
This is wonderful stuff – brain food. Bet you'll have to read through it twice!
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/wo
rks/exist/sartre.htm
Some ideas to look for & process: Existentialists believe man’s hope to be finding
himself...Confronts man with choices...Does man have choices with theism? How would they
be different?...Humanistic in that right and wrong are subjective...Man needs to seek truth
beyond himself to be truly human --- notice the contradiction...Human aspirations for
immortality and order/morality beyond ourselves are misguided...We are what we become –
existence precedes essence as in a piece of art...
Angst in an absurd and irrational universe – embodiment of Kafka and Sartre
Part II: Theism
Continue on with the thoughts of St. Anselm, St. Thomas Aquinas, Thomas
Merton, a contemplative monk, and Albert Einstein, widely acclaimed physicist
and genius, whose ideas are oppositional to those of existentialists.
Philosophical Proofs on the Existence of God
St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Anselm
http://www.saintaquinas.com/philosophy.html
St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument
St. Thomas Aquinas’ Cosmological Argument
Philosophy for Dummies by Dr. Tom Morris
The Teleological Argument
Conclusion
The Contemplative as Teacher: Learning with Thomas Merton
Background
www.thomasmertonsociety.org/prete.htm
Mystical Deception Files
http://www.cephasministry.com/new_age_mystical_deception_files.html
Paranormal communication
Isness and intuitive eastern tradition as opposed to the rational west.
Why are these concepts so difficult for Western thinkers (like us)”
Albert Einstein: The World As I See It
http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm
Notes:
*Einstein and Merton tightly correlate on some points. The mystic which is
understood to be but is beyond our understanding.
*The sharing of isness and mystery implies essence which would precede existence
as we know it.
*Finally, the theistic existentialist takes a “leap of faith” The universe is chaotic and
angst inspiring but the reasons are beyond us.
Your Conclusions:
Now that you have competed the first two parts of this Web Quest, you should
have an understanding of two opposing philosophies.
Proceed to the Personal Response Quotes Section.
Part III: Personal Response Quotes
Respond to four of the quotes below. Why did you select them? What do they say to
you? What is your response? 4 points
Response 1: (copy quote here and respond)
Response 2: (copy quote here and respond)
Response 3: (copy quote here and respond)
Response 4: (copy quote here and respond)
Albert Camus
But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads.
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You
will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.
It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had meaning to be lived.
It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be better lived if it has no meaning.
It is normal to give a little of one’s life away in order not to lose it all.
Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better.
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow; don’t walk behind me; I may not lead; walk
beside me, and just be my friend.
There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether or
not life is worth living is the fundamental question of philosophy.
Rene Descarte
Common sense is the best-distributed commodity in the world, for every man is
convinced that he is well supplied with I
If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far
as possible, all things.
Will Durant
Philosophy begins when one learns to doubt-particularly to doubt one’s cherished
beliefs, one’s dogmas and axioms.
Albert Einstein
A mind once stretched by new thoughts can never regain its original shape.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about
the former.
Victor Frankl
What matters above all is the attitude we take toward suffering, the attitude in which
we take our suffering on ourselves.
There is no need to feel ashamed of existential despair because of the assumption that it
is an emotional disease, for it is not a neurotic symptom but a human achievement and
accomplishment. Above all, it is a manifestation of intellectual sincerity and honesty.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is nothing insignificant in the world, it all depends on how one looks at it.
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man finds almost
nothing.
Ernest Hemmingway
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
David Hume
Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.
Immanuel Kant
There is…only a single categorical imperative and it is this: Act only on the maxim
through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.
Soren Kierkagard
I must find a truth that is true for me.
What the philosophers say about Reality is often as disappointing as a sign you see in
shop window, which reads Pressing Done Here. If you brought your closed to be
pressed, you would be fooled, for only the sign is for sale.
Abraham Maslov
When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.
We do what we are and we are what we do.
Frederich Nietzsche
The world is beautiful, but has a disease called Man.
Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose.
Wit is the epitaph of emotion.
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of the truth than lies.
It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for
them.
In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees only the awfulness or
the absurdity of existence…and loathing seizes him.
Blaise Pascal
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread.
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious
conviction.
How is it that a lame man does not annoy us while a lame mind does? Because a lame
man recognizes that he isn’t walking straight, while a lame mind say it is we who are
limping.
Plato
Attention to health is life’s greatest hindrance.
Bertrand Russel
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Philosophy…removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never
traveled into the region of liberating doubt.
One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to
keep out of prison, but what goes beyond this is voluntary submission to unnecessary
tyranny.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Consciousness is a being such that in its being, this being is in question insofar as this
being implies a being other than itself.
Consciousness is a being, the nature of which is to be the consciousness of the
nothingness of its being.
Man is condemned to be free.
Man is nothing, but what he makes of himself.
Socrates
He who is not contented with what he has would not be contented with what he would
like to have.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Francois Voltaire
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
Oscar Wilde
Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember that nothing worth
knowing can be taught.
Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas.
I can resist everything except temptation.
Only the shallow know themselves.
One should never listen. To listen is a sign of indifference to one’s hearers.
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and simple.
A man who does not think for himself does not think at al.
Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except
the obvious.
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinion, their lives a
mimicry, their passions a quotation.
There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the views of the
uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the with the ignorance of the community.
The artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as
lone as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one
admires it intensely.
Ludwig Wittgensetin
Whereof one cannot speak, thereon one must remain silent.
The limits of my language are the limits of my mind.
MORE Camus quotes
Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principle of evil.
To know oneself, one should assert oneself. Psychology is action, not thinking about
oneself. We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves
perfectly, we should die.
The principles which men give to themselves end by overwhelming their noblest
intentions.
Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.
If, after all, men cannot always make history have meaning, they can always act so that
their own lives have one.
It is normal to give away a little of one's life in order not to lose it all.
We all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes, and our ravages. But our task is
not to unleash them on the world; it is to fight them in ourselves and in others.
Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.
Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not
believe in dying completely.
Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.
The absurd had meaning only in so far as it is not agreed to.
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging
whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of
philosophy.
Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.
What is a rebel? A man who says no.
Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraint it imposes on itself, and dies of
all others.
You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any
clear question.
Don't wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.
In depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
There are some words that I have never really understood, such as sin...For if there is
sin against life, it lies perhaps less in despairing of it than in hoping for another life and
evading the implacable grandeur of the one we have.
There are places where the mind dies so that a truth which is its very denial may be
born.
I do not want to believe that death is the gateway to another life. For me, it is a closed
door. I do not say it is a step we must all take, but that it is a horrible and dirty
adventure.
There exists an obvious fact that seems utterly moral; namely, that a man is always a
prey to his truths. Once he has admitted them, he cannot free himself from them.
We turn toward God only to obtain the impossible.
Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Just
walk beside me and be my friend.
You cannot acquire experience by making experiments. You cannot create experience.
You must undergo it.
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.