I'm going start composing posts in this format. But perhaps not every post.. keep your eyes open because I feel a blogging rampage upon the horizon, and my eyes are drawn toward the light!
Existentialism is often discussed as if it were a philosophy of despair, but I think the truth is just the opposite.
One thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as a real kind of exuberance, of feeling on top of it, it's like your life is absolutely yours to create! I've read the post modernists with some interest, even admiration, but when I read their writings, I always have this awful nagging feeling that something absolutely essential is getting left out. The more you talk about a person as a social construction or as a confluence of forces or as being fragmented of marginalised, what you do is you open up a whole new world of excuses. And when sartre talks about responsibility, He's not talking about something abstract. He's not talking about the kind of self or souls that theologians would talk about. He's talking about you and me in conversation, making descisions, doing things, and taking the consequences. It may be absolutely true that there are six billion people in this world, and counting; Nevertheless, what you do makes a difference!!!!!! It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms, to OTHER people, and it sets an example.
One thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as a real kind of exuberance, of feeling on top of it, it's like your life is absolutely yours to create! I've read the post modernists with some interest, even admiration, but when I read their writings, I always have this awful nagging feeling that something absolutely essential is getting left out. The more you talk about a person as a social construction or as a confluence of forces or as being fragmented of marginalised, what you do is you open up a whole new world of excuses. And when sartre talks about responsibility, He's not talking about something abstract. He's not talking about the kind of self or souls that theologians would talk about. He's talking about you and me in conversation, making descisions, doing things, and taking the consequences. It may be absolutely true that there are six billion people in this world, and counting; Nevertheless, what you do makes a difference!!!!!! It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms, to OTHER people, and it sets an example.
Perhaps in short, my message is that we should never write ourselves off or see eachother as a victim of various forces or thus circumstance. It's always OUR decision who we are.
... and that's all I've got for now.
... and that's all I've got for now.
I tend to agree that Sartre, albeit existentialism in general, refers to responsibility for oneself.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I cannot deny Sartre's outlook seems to be rather hopeless; he does consider life to be an encapsulation of anguish, forlornness, and despair.
I suppose my main point here is that, while existentialism does offer the chance to create one's own reality, so to speak, it also denies the reader any positive reinforcement for any hope on this plane of existence.
Sorry, I have a dark place in my heart when it comes to existentialism.