Existentialism is a modern philosophical belief, or theory, that is positioned upon the study of existence and of the way human beings find themselves existing in the world. The concept is that humans exist first and then each individual spends a lifetime changing their essence or nature. If you take this into account, then by the philosophical theory of Existentialism alone, you can determine that this object, this mass of cells, is, in fact, a human being. In fact, the...
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Existentialism is a frequent motif throughout Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. The author characterizes this motif and its characteristics through the unnamed protagonist life experiences and his relationships with society and thus its consequences. In the collection of essays “Shadow and Act” (1964), Ellison was already centered on most of the important questions he used in his writings: identity and self-creation. Ellison already showed his interest in finding and determines the nature of individualism, the past and the present and the...
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Introduction The current analysis involves two plays, written by different authors to illustrate philosophical themes used to express meaning and purpose of mankind and their actions. The first play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, written by Tom Stoppard, has two main characters, engaged in a game of spinning coins to determine who is more probable to win throughout the process. The more one of them continues to lose the game and hide the discomfort; the other seeks an appropriate position...
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What is the purpose of life? What is death? Who am I and what do I want out of life? These are all questions deriving from the period known as Existentialism. Many philosophers contributed to existentialism thinking and helped to push the existentialist movement along. Even now, existentialism lives in our modern day society and helps some people to define their way of living. Some of the major contributions to the existentialism period include philosophers like Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche,...
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Existentialism was defined by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre as an ethical and philosophical theory that would place importance on freedom as inherently valuable and the base of all other values (Webber)1. Being human for Sartre was summarised perfectly in the motto “existence precedes essence” (Webber, Sartre).2 The phrase explores the idea that human beings do not have an innate essence or fixed identity, but that they create them through the values and tasks that they embrace throughout life...
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It’s the 21st century, women should get equal rights. It’s the 21st century, Netflix should be compulsory and free for all. ‘It’s the 21st century’ is probably one of the most common arrangement of words used in the 21st century – the century of information. The century that started with the rise in the number and diversity in newspaper articles and is now witnessing an even bigger number of articles on the internet everyday about anything and everything. The 21st...
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Soren Kierkegaard has a lot of controversial things in his existentialism and philosophy and this includes his dislike of Kantianism and Hegeliansim and Churchism. He believes in a few things but most especially, he believed that God truly exists. That’s why he tried looking into the concepts of churches among all religions. After examining it, he realized that it’s not good to rely on the church in order for you to have a connection with God. The church shouldn’t be...
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Existentialism is a way of thinking about finding oneself and the significance of life through choice, decision, and moral obligation. The belief is that individuals are looking to discover who and what they really are throughout their life as they settle on decisions depending on their encounters, beliefs, and viewpoints. Individual decisions become extraordinary without the need for a target type of truth. An existentialist accepts that an individual ought to be compelled to pick and be dependable without the...
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Soren Aabye Kierkegaard was an early 19th-century Danish philosopher. He was born in Copenhagen on May 5, 1813, and died on November 11, 1855. An understanding of Kierkegaard’s biography is important as his relationships with his father, Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard, and his fiancée, Regine Olsen, shaped him into a philosopher. Kierkegaard inherited melancholy, the sense of guilt and anxiety as well as being overly devotional towards Christianity from his father. Michael was guilty of having cursed God as a boy...
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The clarity that can be found through following the principles of existentialism allows people to find their way in the world around them as well as allowing them to find meaning in the life they’ve been given. It strips away the veil of positivity and removes the idea of fate, forcing people to face the world’s trials and create a personal destiny. Existentialism allows people to see how absolutely, fully alone they are, but in this solitude, control can be...
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INTRODUCTION In this essay I am going to look nor talk about the following: Existentialism basically implies the meaning of life, how one specify life as per his/her discoveries. Existentialism enable people to experience their lives without worrying over the desires for the world since this specific philosophical point of view does not have a particular clarification or desires on what life is or expected to be. In content I will connect the Existentialism philosophical point of view theory with...
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Existentialism is defined as “a family of philosophies devoted to an interpretation of human existence in the world that stresses concreteness and character” (Existentialism, 1). The movement rejects traditional attempts to ground human knowledge in the external world and claims the self emerges from experience. Overall, existentialism declares that humans make themselves what they are through their own choices (Farahmandian and Haonong, 334). Arguably, one of the most intriguing writers who can be identified as an existentialist is Franz Kafka,...
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'I am separated from all things by a hollow space...and I do not even reach to its boundaries” - Kafka‘s diaries. It is no wonder that Kafka felt such a hollowness between himself and everything around him, considering that he existed within a monotonous, traditional, patriarchal and a habitual society. Such anxiety and separation from meaningfulness in life has not only been utilized by Kafka to practice self-reflection within his own stories but has also been a focal point of...
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Contrasting Philosophies: Sartre's Atheism vs. Kierkegaard's Faith Sartre is one of the most influential atheist existentialists. On the other hand, Kierkegaard is seen as the ‘father of existentialism, while most of his later texts were more religious than philosophical in their disposition. Kierkegaard does not believe in the traditional teaching of Christianity and instead wants to build an individual, intimate relationship with God and not through an external institution. Sartre’s private life included polyamory, weird politics and made other philosophers...
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The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) lived nearly his entire life in Copenhagen. Kierkegaard was devoutly religious. He was shaken when he discovered, at age 22, that his father had not only cursed God but also seduced his mother prior to marriage. Subsequently, Kierkegaard’s writings focused primarily on religious faith and the meaning of Christianity. Eventually, he concluded that religious faith was irrational and attainable only via a subjective experiential “leap of faith.” For Kierkegaard, virtuous traits such as responsibility,...
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Waiting for Godot is the conflict between spiritual and philosophical ideas that both demonstrate renewal and diverse perspectives to the viewers. Waiting for Godot was part of the theater of the absurd a movement that appeared after the second world war. This movement looked at artist struggling to find meaning through devastation. The absurdist deconstructed plots and characters to try and find meaning to then share the uncertainty on stage. The play offers a simple question to the audience “What...
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Hamlet, a play written by William Shakespeare, is about a prince and his mission for vengeance. Hamlet’s quest for revenge covers the 20th century philosophical movement; existentialism. Throughout the play, prince Hamlet regularly questions his purpose and existence as he mourns over his father’s death and his mother’s incestuous affair. Concurrently, this serves a perfect opportunity for the author to illustrate his existential viewpoint. Shakespeare merges existentialism into his literature through Hamlet’s views on faith, existence and death. Hamlet’s personality...
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