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.”

ExistentialismHow 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 KierkegaardWho 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.

2nd 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

3rd 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.